One in eight Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Trust ambulance patients delayed by at least 30 minutes

The figures came as about 25,000 ambulance workers from the Unison and GMB unions – including paramedics, call handlers, drivers and technicians – went on strike over demands for an inflationary pay rise, but the Government says most staff have received a 4 per cent pay rise.

NHS England figures show 14 patients waited at least one hour in the week to January 8, while a further 66 patients waited more than 30 minutes across the same time period.

It meant 12 per cent of the 678 ambulance arrivals at SFH, which also runs Newark and Mansfield Community hospitals, were delayed by at least 30 minutes, although this was down from 15 per cent the week before.

At least 21 hours were lost as a result.

The East Midlands Ambulance Service has said an average of 888 hours a day were lost in December, equivalent to 74 12-hour shifts a day, largely due to patient flow problems through hospitals where there are often hundreds of patients who are medically fit for discharge but cannot leave because there is no space for them in the social care system.

Amanda Sullivan, NHS Nottinghamshire chief executive, said: “The NHS in Nottinghamshire, like the rest of the country, is currently under extreme pressure with huge demand for services”.

Maggie McManus, of SFH, said: “We’re doing all we can to release ambulances as quickly as possible, so they are back on the road and available for the most seriously ill people.

“SFH is one of the top performing trusts in the Midlands for ambulance turnaround times, which is testament to the work our staff do with ambulance colleagues to prioritise our patients’ needs.”

Further NHS England figures show the mean response time by ambulances in England to category two calls, including suspected heart attacks and strokes, was 92 minutes and 54 seconds in December, the longest on record and more than five times the target of 18 minutes.

Similarly, response times for urgent calls, such as late stages of labour, non-severe burns, and diabetes, averaged four hours, 19 minutes and 10 seconds, also the longest on record.

Meanwhile, responses to t calls from people with life-threatening illnesses or injuries rose to a record 10 minutes and 57 seconds, against a target of seven minutes.

Sarah Scobie, of health think tank the Nuffield Trust, said: “Too many patients needing an ambulance in the lead-up to Christmas faced horrific waits.

“Despite the best efforts of ambulance staff, they still face lengthy delays to handover patients safely to hospital teams, who are working at capacity.”

Nationally, nearly one in five, 19 per cent, of ambulance patients waited more than an hour to be handed to A&E teams in the week to January 8, down from a record 26 per cent the previous week.

And 36 per cent of ambulance patients waited at least 30 minutes to be transferred to A&E. The equivalent figures for this point last year show 10 per cent of patients waited more than an hour and 23 per cent waited at least half an hour.