Bosses say they will continue to look at ways to reduce ambulance delays in Shropshire

Bosses say they will continue to look at ways to reduce ambulance delays in Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin.

Figures released by West Midlands Ambulance Service (WMAS) show that in  June 2024, 2,499 hours were lost in Shropshire, an increase of 39.9% compared to June 2023.

This has had an impact on crews getting to category one (the most severe) incidents. WMAS has a target of getting to 90% of these type of calls within 15 minutes, with its ‘mean’ target being seven minutes.

However, six of the longest waiting times for category one calls in the West Midlands during June were in Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin, with the worst being 51 minutes 13 seconds for a medical incident.

Overall, crews managed to get to 90% of category one calls in the region within 23 minutes 43 seconds in June, which is slightly worse than the same period last year. However, WMAS’ performance for category two and three responses were much better, with it reaching 90% of the former in

Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin in 62 minutes 28, compared to 82 minutes 42 last year.

A West Midlands Ambulance Service spokesman said: “There is a direct correlation between hospital handover delays and our ability to get to patients in the community quickly.  If ambulances are delayed handling their patient, they are unable to respond to the next call, which will impact on the care of the patient in the community.

“Hospital handover delays particularly impact rural areas as the ambulances that should be circulating in those areas are stuck at hospital.  In practical terms it means that ambulances will often have to travel much further to get to incidents in rural areas which inevitably means response times will be much longer than anyone would want.

“A huge amount of work has taken place in Shropshire to find ways of reducing hospital handover delays.  Delays are a whole system issue including the all of health and social care and not just the ambulance service and emergency departments.

“We will continue to work with our partners to find ways of reducing the delays further so that our ambulances can get to patients in the community more quickly than they currently do.”