A and E "patient stacking" lunacy

A&E patients 'left in ambulances for hours'

Extract from Telegraph article:

"Seriously ill patients are left for hours in ambulances instead of being immediately admitted to accident and emergency departments to meet a Government target on treatment times, it was claimed yesterday.

The practice of "patient stacking" has left some waiting for up to five hours because A&E units have refused to admit them until they can be treated within the four-hour time limit.

Unison, the public sector union, said the practice poses a danger to other patients because ambulances detained as "waiting rooms" cannot answer new 999 calls.

Mary Maguire, a spokesman for the union, said: "This happens time and time again. It is an appalling waste of resources. We should not use ambulances as waiting rooms.

"A 16-year-old terminally ill cancer patient died after waiting over an hour for an ambulance to transfer him. Three ambulances could have reached him but they were tied up waiting to hand over patients to A&E."

Dr Steve Field, the chairman of the Royal College of GPs, called the situation ''entirely inappropriate and unacceptable".

Evidence of patient stacking is revealed in the official ''turnaround time" data released by seven of England's 11 regional ambulance services.

The figures show that over the past 15 months at least 44,000 delays were reported by the ambulance services. In some cases the delays were up to five hours."

This "patient stacking" is lunacy!

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