WE write in connection with your article “Patients ‘stranded’ in ambulances shock” (Burton Mail, January 5).
While the figure suggesting that it took over an hour for the ambulance service to hand over a number of patients to the hospital is true, it is quite wrong to suggest that the patients in question were left ‘stranded’ on the back of ambulances.
Even when the hospital is operating at maximum capacity, patients brought in by ambulance are taken into the hospital immediately upon arrival.
The patient remains in the care of the ambulance crew until they can be handed over to hospital staff.
The only time that this would not be the case would be for very specific medical reasons e.g. if the patient had an infectious disease that required isolation, in which case they might wait a few minutes on the ambulance until suitable accommodation could be arranged.
It is really important that the public are not left with a false impression.
We believe it is important that people understand that in more than 99 per cent of cases, patients are handed over from ambulance crews to hospital staff in a timely manner ensuring that they receive the best possible care.
Helen Ashley, chief executive, Burton Hospitals Foundation Trust Lee Washington, general manager (Staffordshire), West Midlands Ambulance Service
