NHS says ‘extreme pressure’ on services is to blame for ambulance delays outside Scarborough Hospital

Deanne Ferguson, a member of the GMB union who was meeting ambulance crews to discuss an upcoming ballot on industrial action this week, has said that at one point she counted 14 ambulances waiting outside Scarborough Hospital.

Ms Ferguson said: “We arrived last night to see 14 ambulances queued up outside A&E with patients on the back of the ambulances”

“We saw paramedics that had responded to 999-calls several hours ago, still waiting to drop patients off inside the A&E.”

Speaking to BBC Look North on Tuesday evening, Ms Ferguson also said she saw nurses and other hospital staff treating patients in the back of the ambulances.

She added: “It was something that we’ve never seen before, but apparently this is the norm.”

Though it did not address the number of ambulances waiting outside Scarborough Hospital, the NHS said its emergency departments “are currently under extreme pressure”.

A spokesperson for the York and Scarborough NHS Trust added that high numbers of patients waiting to be discharged “who no longer need to be in hospital” is resulting in patients waiting longer for beds to become available.

They said that this caused delays in admission to the emergency department and delays in the hospital’s ability to hand over ambulances.

The spokesperson added: “To ensure we are looking after our patients at the point of arrival and maximising patient safety, emergency department staff conduct assessments in the back of the ambulances to identify the sickest patients which enables us to plan accordingly.

“We continue to work with both Yorkshire Ambulance Service and the two Local Authorities in our area (NYCC and East Riding) to ensure we turn ambulances around as quickly as possible and to endeavour to progress the discharge of patients who need to be discharged elsewhere.”

The Royal College of Nursing has announced that its members have voted to strike at the majority of NHS employers across the UK over a pay dispute.

The union says average pay has fallen by 6 per cent between 2011 and 2021 for nurses, but the government in England has pointed to a 3 per cent pay rise that NHS staff received last year.