Ambulances in A&E log jam at York Hospital

10:24am Wednesday 6th March 2013 in News Photograph of the Author By Richard Catton, richard.catton@thepress.co.uk

Ambulances outside the accident and emergency department at York Hospital Ambulances outside the accident and emergency department at York Hospital

PARAMEDICS have been forced to wait with patients in corridors at York Hospital for more than two hours, The Press can reveal.

At one point on Sunday, 11 ambulances were queuing outside the accident and emergency department at the hospital in Wigginton Road, a member of Yorkshire Ambulance Service (YAS) has told The Press. The hospital blamed an “exceptionally busy” period for the delays.

The hospital has been finding it difficult to deal with the volume of patients, meaning paramedics cannot leave until beds have been found.

The paramedic who contacted The Press said: “One crew have been in the corridor for two-and-a-half hours with one patient. We have crews from Pontefract and Doncaster currently in York because we are all tied up here.

“It’s getting worse without a doubt. Over the weekend I know it was busy and we are getting more and more waits in the corridors. This is becoming more and more of a relevant issue in York.

“I would like to see more qualified nurses and more beds on wards, but it just isn’t going to happen. If we don’t reach our response times at the end of year then as a trust we get fined, but it’s out of our hands.”

The hospital was recently on “red alert” with ten wards closed due to a winter vomiting bug outbreak and resultant staffing problems. Only one bay is now affected by the seasonal norovirus.

But Mandy McGale, director of operations for the hospital, said: “This time of year is a busy time for the emergency department at York Hospital and Yorkshire Ambulance Service. It has been an exceptionally busy couple of days, with high levels of attendances and ambulance arrivals.

"There were a lot of very ill patients, and staff worked tirelessly to ensure that patients with urgent health care requirements were prioritised according to their clinical needs.

“All escalation policies were put into place and staff worked with colleagues from YAS to keep delays to a minimum.”

David Williams, YAS deputy director of operations, said: “During times of high demand hospitals may experience busy periods which, understandably, can result in handover delays.” He said the trust was working closely with others to minimise and avoid delays in future and was working to build on an NHS report on the issue.

Mr Williams said: “As a regional service we have the flexibility to move our resources at any time to ensure that we provide sufficient cover and a timely response to all of our patients, wherever they may be.”

Comments(21)

micky moodys hat says...
11:10am Wed 6 Mar 13

There will be deaths caused by the current state of affairs in ydh. Wards virtually staffed by bank staff, nurses having to accept patients without handovers. Patients left on corridors. Staff getting reprimanded for not getting patient s out quickly enough. One nurse being expected to look after 30 patients with the help of 2 hca's. The vast majority of problems in there are caused by lack of staff in critical areas and it will only get worse as cuddly Daves re organisation really starts to bite. They are going back on promises made when it was annouced and will soon have achieved the destruction of the nhs to feed the pockets of their buddies as they planned

Report this post »

yawn.. says...
12:23pm Wed 6 Mar 13

...more middle managers and people walking around with clip boards seeing where to penny pinch.. that's what's needed.. never mind all this nonsense about more nurses.

Report this post »

ouseswimmer says...
12:43pm Wed 6 Mar 13

Truth is there are a lot of senior managers being paid far too much which uses up the budgets. There simply isn't any money left for the workforce at the sharp end.

Report this post »

Zetkin says...
12:51pm Wed 6 Mar 13

Regional demonstration against NHS cuts & privatisation - Saturday April 6th, assemble York Minster at noon.

Report this post »

consumer says...
1:05pm Wed 6 Mar 13

Welcome to the Tories' NHS.

Report this post »

M.Blanc says...
1:43pm Wed 6 Mar 13

Mr Williams is talking tosh! He may well have the 'flexibility to move resources' around the county....but this just leaves huge gaps where that 'resource' has just been and often very long run times for the 'resource' to reach its patient. If you think that coming from Beverley to York on blue lights for a poorly patient...and being the first 'resource' on scene is acceptable then I think you are in the minority Mr Williams.
And it may be a period of 'high demand' York Hospital....but why is it a high period? There is not a norovirus outbreak or flu epidemic. What there is though is a history of ward closures and bed closures over the past two years AND a lack of qualified nurses! Lots of cheaper to employ Health Care Assistants though eh?!

Report this post »

asd says...
1:45pm Wed 6 Mar 13

This coalition which I cant remember being on my ballot paper is basically privatising the NHS so their buddies on the boards ofInsurance and private medical care get a nice cut of the profits.
It needs a mass demonstation in every city to show Cameron and his puppy dog Clegg what they are doing to the NHS is wrong.

Report this post »

yorkshirelad says...
3:10pm Wed 6 Mar 13

Privatisation clearly is the plan and making sure that the public gets more dissatisfied with the service is also part of the work up to this. The other cunning part of the plan is to transfer nominal responsibility to GPs so that they can try and blame them when it all goes pear-shaped.

It is self evident that the NHS is working far to close to capacity with the obvious effects when you get minor blips in demand.

NHS resourcing is one side of this but another side is that in many cases the authorities are simply not straight enough with people about using services appropriately.

The NHS cannot cope with escalating demand without increasing resources. We either do more ourselves to keep in a better state of health, or we will pay more.

Privatisation is not the answer and to the coalition who are trying all sorts of back door methods to make this happen I say this... we are watching and we know what you are doing.

Report this post »

againstthecuts says...
4:33pm Wed 6 Mar 13

things will only get worse i,m afraid y.a.s are currently balloting their members.

Report this post »

Caecilius says...
5:18pm Wed 6 Mar 13

Just had an (admittedly routine) appointment at York Hospital postponed for two months, by first class letter, at 48 hours notice and with no reason given. Not for the first time, either. With unconscious irony, the standard letter admonishes me "your appointment with us is important and YOU should always try to keep it".

Report this post »

Rosieposie says...
5:31pm Wed 6 Mar 13

Well my Dad had two planned admissions via MAU and both ties the ambulance crew were there over an hour. It does not happen anywhere else so why York?

Report this post »

Garrowby Turnoff says...
5:43pm Wed 6 Mar 13

Hull Royal Infirmary A&E is far worse. I stood at the side of my bleeding 92 year old step-dad's trolley in a corridor for 5 hours last month. When I asked if there'd been a train wreck in Hull that Monday morning I was brusquely told "this is nothing!"

Report this post »

Fourkov says...
7:28pm Wed 6 Mar 13

It's a figment of the imagination. After all the NHS is in safe hands. Must be because the tory ratboy told us before the election.

Report this post »

pedalling paul says...
10:21pm Wed 6 Mar 13

No beds in the maternity unit......stand and deliver!!

Report this post »

NoMorePlease says...
11:08pm Wed 6 Mar 13

Rosieposie wrote:
Well my Dad had two planned admissions via MAU and both ties the ambulance crew were there over an hour. It does not happen anywhere else so why York?
Yes it does. Get your facts right before making daft comments

Report this post »

inthesticks says...
11:28pm Wed 6 Mar 13

So many beds are taken up by people who are medically fit to leave the hospital but have nowhere to go, the majority elderly who take up huge amounts of staff time and NHS resources but also mentally ill and younger social cases who no doubt should be elsewhere as they are not in need of medical or surgical treatment.
If all of these cases were not blocking beds then York Hospital would not have this constant bed crisis every other week.
So the conclusion is that we do not have a problem with York Hospital but a problem with social care and mental health.

Report this post »

yorkiemum says...
7:43am Thu 7 Mar 13

pedalling paul wrote:
No beds in the maternity unit......stand and deliver!!
Again you flippantly comment on a serious subject. Shame on you!!

Report this post »

yorkshirelad says...
8:00am Thu 7 Mar 13

inthesticks wrote:
So many beds are taken up by people who are medically fit to leave the hospital but have nowhere to go, the majority elderly who take up huge amounts of staff time and NHS resources but also mentally ill and younger social cases who no doubt should be elsewhere as they are not in need of medical or surgical treatment.
If all of these cases were not blocking beds then York Hospital would not have this constant bed crisis every other week.
So the conclusion is that we do not have a problem with York Hospital but a problem with social care and mental health.
There is probably something in this. A far bigger slice of the pie needs to go to primary care & community services if we are going to reduce the burden on acute hospitals.

This won't happen without significant resource increases in these areas which ultimately may have to come from reducing the amounts gobbled up by acute hospitals....but they can't have less funds until teh demands on them are reduced.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to work out that 'pump priming 'funds are required to make this change. Done well, ultimately we may be able to make the NHS more affordable.

The current 'slash and burn' approach by the coalition trying to set things up very nicely for their friends in large corporations will be a disaster for health in the UK. Our area in particular is being starved of funds by an obselete funding formula.

Report this post »

ReginaldBiscuit says...
9:10am Thu 7 Mar 13

yorkiemum wrote:
pedalling paul wrote:
No beds in the maternity unit......stand and deliver!!
Again you flippantly comment on a serious subject. Shame on you!!
Leave him alone. Paul is harmless.

People aren't expiring yet so panic off. People should chill. I had to take my youngest son into A&E at York when he became seriously ill. It was busy but the treatment he received was nothing short of superb. If there is a hint that someone is near death, they will be dealt with straight away.

If you want to look at the sole reason why there are huge problems in the NHS then you have to look at two things. Privatisation and population explosion.

Privatisation has been an utter disaster not only for the NHS but also for other services and utilities. Look at the problems on the railways. Most expensive fares in europe. Look at your rising energy bills. All your energy companies foreign owned. There are many other egregious examples of privatisation disasters that have taken place in the UK but we haven't got all day.

Population. There's enough room on the planet for everyone and if the wealth and food is shared around a bit better, there's quality of life there for all as well. Migration and immigration from and to any country should be actively discouraged. The focus should be on education and raising the quality of life in every country on the planet. It could even be something useful that the UN would actually do. The NHS is a free service facing enormous logistics in the modern era which is why you have localised problems.

Anyway, no amount of moaning will do. The most indebted nation on earth is held to ransom by the world banks and it is they who will run the country for the next 10 years. They will call the shots although I suspect they already are doing so. Expect cuts, cuts and more cuts in the public sector and a worse service in the NHS. Expect politics to get more heated and radical as life becomes a lot harder to live. Unless we radically move away as a Kingdom from the service sector to actually manufacturing more of what other countries want, the nations' debts won't change anytime soon.

Report this post »

xtc says...
9:53am Thu 7 Mar 13

Only just realised now!been happening for years have seen and been part of it so sad but what can you do?

Report this post »

M.Blanc says...
2:58pm Fri 8 Mar 13

Reginald biscuit misses the point. Its not the very taken to the hospital that are not being dealt with. If your very poorly and taken in by ambulance you will be seen promptly.
But if you are very ill at home and have dialed 999 and are expecting and need and ambulance ASAP, you may be very disapointed as the majority of North Yorkshires ambulances may well be in the corridor waiting for a bed!! I know as I speak from professional first hand experience. And unless the dear Reggie is a Paramedic or Doctor working in A+E and having to spend so much time waiting, he should get his facts straight.

Report this post »

click2find

About cookies

We want you to enjoy your visit to our website. That's why we use cookies to enhance your experience. By staying on our website you agree to our use of cookies. Find out more about the cookies we use.

I agree