AN astonishing queue of 23 ambulances formed outside an overstretched A&E department yesterday.
The huge jam — the second in a week at Worcestershire Royal Hospital — came as staff were overwhelmed with patients hit by flu and Norovirus.
1
Paul Brennan, deputy chief executive of Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, said: “Demand on our emergency departments continues to be very high and the Christmas period has remained very busy with ambulance arrivals up nine per cent this year compared to last year.
“We would advise the public to help us by choosing their health services wisely, and only attend A&E if they really need to.”
Last Monday, December 23, was the busiest day for the hospital with 182 patient admissions.
Figures for the week of December 9-15 show that 1,122 patients were brought by ambulance to A&E at the Worcestershire Acute Hospitals Trust hospitals.
Over the week, 462 arrivals waited 30 minutes or more to be transferred to the emergency department.
This is despite NHS guidelines saying all patients should be transferred within 15 minutes.
It came a month after a patient died after he was forced to wait for an hour in an ambulance outside the same department.
Paramedics were told there was no room inside Worcestershire Royal Hospital for the man, so he had to stay in their vehicle.
His condition deteriorated and he was brought into A&E after an hour but suffered a cardiac arrest and died on a trolley in the corridor.
