Hospitals under pressure from 100 visits a day by ambulances

Increase: the figures revealed a huge surge in use of ambulances among over-90s

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1 July 2013

The pressure on London’s health service was highlighted today by figures showing that some hospitals receive more than 100 ambulance visits a day.

Queen’s hospital in Romford was the capital’s busiest casualty department, with 39,994 patients brought by ambulance — almost 15 per cent higher than last year, and an average of 110 a day.

St Thomas’ in Lambeth, Northwick Park in Harrow and Queen Elizabeth in Woolwich all handled more than 35,000 cases a year. Woolwich will receive thousands of extra cases if Lewisham hospital A&E is downgraded.

London Ambulance Service (LAS) said it took 747,034 people to hospital in the year to May — a 3.7 per cent annual rise. But this is a fraction of the 4.5 million who turn up each year in London’s 29 casualty departments — with Queen’s and its sister hospital, King George’s in Ilford, seeing almost 4,000 a week.

Paul Gates, LAS assistant director of operations, said: “Demand continues to rise and we are attending 12.2 per cent more patients with life-threatening illnesses and injuries than last year.

“But not everyone who calls 999 will get an ambulance. People with less serious illnesses and injuries may be given clinical advice over the phone and, although we attend just under 1.1 million incidents every year, we only take 747,000 patients to A&E.

“Where it is safe to do so we would encourage people to use other healthcare providers, such as a GP or walk-in centre, and only call for an ambulance in an emergency.”

Dalene Matthews, 41, of Croydon, told how she called 999 last month when her 18-month-old son Kai passed out in her arms.

A paramedic arrived within five minutes, followed soon after by an ambulance, and the boy was revived. She said: “He had passed out because he had a virus and a high temperature.”

They arrived at Mayday hospital, Croydon, at about 5.45pm, but Kai was not seen until 11pm. “I was very impressed with the ambulance crew but I threatened to walk out of hospital a few times, and my husband had to pacify me. The one doctor said, ‘We are short-staffed and we are doing the best we can.’”

Croydon Health Services NHS Trust said: “We want every patient coming into A&E to know that they are receiving high quality compassionate care when they need it most. We have made changes to our emergency department, including recruiting more consultants and we want to increase these numbers further in the year ahead.

"Croydon University Hospital A&E met and exceeded national emergency care targets to see 95% of patients within four hours, since the beginning of April. To build on this further we are preparing a £17million business case to modernise A&E, which will include a dedicated children’s unit.”

Barking, Havering and Redbridge NHS trust, which runs Queen’s in Romford and King George hospital in Ilford, last week missed the target of seeing at least 95 per cent of A&E patients within four hours. It managed 90.6 per cent. Trust chief executive Averil Dongworth said: “We are working hard to recruit more permanent staff to our emergency departments. There is a national shortage of A&E consultants.”

North Middlesex, and Barnet and Chase Farm, also missed the target.

In January, health watchdog the Care Quality Commission said the A&E department at Queen had been providing “unacceptably poor care”.

In one case, Della Callagher, 46, from Hornchurch, died from food poisoning contracted during a Christmas Day pub lunch last year. She was sent home by Queen’s after being given an anti-sickness injection but died two days later after being readmitted.