Ambulance waits to admit patients to NHS Highland hospitals soars by 16% delaying crews by 14,544 hours last year – the equivalent of 606 days
The time spent by ambulance crews waiting to admit patients to Highland hospitals has soared by 16 per cent reaching 14,544 hours last year – equivalent to 606 days.
The wait to get people picked up by an ambulance and into hospital is concentrated largely not on those not going to A&E but who still need treatment in hospital.
The figures were obtained by the Liberal Democrat far north Scottish parliamentary candidate David Green who has called on the Scottish Government to take further action to free up space and capacity in hospitals.
The data, released by the Scottish Ambulance Service following a freedom of information request reveals it took ambulances a total of 14,544 hours to unload and get patients admitted to hospitals before departing last year.
The figure represents a rise of more than 16 per cent compared to 2022 when the total turnaround time was 12,528 hours.
Cumulative 4.5 years of waiting for patients to be admitted
Between 2022 and 2024, it has taken ambulances across the NHS Highland area a total of 40,188 hours to turnaround – that is the equivalent of more than 4.5 years waiting for patients to be admitted to hospital.
A separate FOI submitted by this newspaper shows the worst turnaround time for Highland crews in 2021 was just under five hours, the next year it rose to more than seven hours. By 2023 the worst stood at well over eight hours and by 2024 the turnaround time had again grown – to just under 10 hours.
Mr Green, standing for the Caithness, Sutherland and Ross constituency in next year’s Holyrood elections, said: “These delays are deeply troubling. Despite the best efforts of ambulance workers, people are now waiting longer in both pain and fear for the care and treatment they need.
“To tackle waiting times at pace, the Scottish Government needs to take further steps to support hospital staff who are struggling to find the space to receive new patients.
“Part of the solution to freeing up that space will be tackling the crisis in social care so more people can access the care they need at home or in the community.
“That is why the Liberal Democrats are proposing a Carers’ Minimum Wage where social care workers would be paid at least £2 an hour more than the current minimum wage, better valuing their critical work and thereby increasing staff retention.”
‘Waits prevent our crews from getting back out on the road to treat other patients’
A Scottish Ambulance Service spokesperson said: “We continue to experience significant pressure on our services due to lengthy hospital turnaround times at a number of hospital sites across Scotland.
“These waits prevent our crews from getting back out on the road to treat other patients, and we are working closely with health boards, including NHS Highland, to support their efforts to improve the situation.”
The intervention came after Lib Dem MP for Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire, Angus MacDonald, published a report detailing the crisis in Highland social care. It found a soaring aging population and a plummeting number of beds for those needing residential care.
He has called on the Scottish Government to invest in new care homes across the west coast, helping the region increase bed capacity and tackle chronic staff shortages.
NHS: ‘We are working very hard to maintain the levels of service’
A spokeswoman for NHS Highland said: “Similar to other areas across Scotland and the UK we have been experiencing high levels of demand across all of our services. However, we are always looking at ways we can improve our patient experience and ensure safe, person centred, and effective care.
“We work with our community colleagues to improve patient flow within our system and have a very good working relationship with Scottish Ambulance Service colleagues working together to try and help mitigate waiting times through joint escalation plans.
“This work includes early identification of waits, clinical meets between Emergency Department and Admission Ward staff, opening of extra space and increasing patient movement and bed flow. These are just some of the measures that we are using to help prevent ambulances having to wait at our front doors.
“For our patients who are ready to leave hospital we are experiencing high levels of delay. There are a variety of reasons for this however the most frequent one is finding a suitable onward placement or accommodation that can meet the specific care needs of the individuals waiting to be discharged.
“We are working very hard to maintain the levels of service that we have within adult social care. We are also, along with the Highland Council, working with care at home, support and residential sectors to support continued provision but the challenges we face, which include care home closures and significant difficulty in recruiting, particularly with recruitment in our most remote settings, cannot be underestimated.”
