Sheffield A&E patient handover delays at Northern General Hospital “equal to 48 ambulance hours a day”

A report by the Yorkshire Ambulance Service (YAS) states: “At Northern General, the average handover time year to date was 37 minutes and 18 seconds and an average of 48 ambulance hours per day were lost due to delayed handovers, which is the equivalent of five ambulances on a 12-hour shift per day.”

The report is being considered on Thursday (January 23) by Sheffield City Council’s health scrutiny sub-committee.

The YAS report says that its emergency service continues to see high levels of operational demand, with particular pressures during the current winter season.

“NHS England has reported that 2024 was the busiest year ever for A&E and ambulance services in England with December recording the highest number of ambulance incidents ever in one month. Response times in A&E Operations (the emergency ambulance service) are seeing some challenges, particularly for category 1 and 2 patients, who are the most seriously ill.”

“The national target for 2024/25 was for all English ambulance services to achieve a category 2 average mean response time of under 30 minutes (although the national response target is usually 18 minutes).”

Response

The report adds that nationally, category two ambulance response times have deteriorated during 2024. In December, the average national response time was an average of 47 minutes, 26 seconds, the longest for two years. The average response times in Sheffield for April to December 2024 were 7 minutes, 10 seconds in category one (against a national standard of 7 minutes). The category two response time was 27 minutes, 13 seconds (the current national standard is 30 minutes).

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The national target for patient handovers at emergency departments is 15 minutes. The report notes: “Pressures across the health and social care system contribute to the hospital handover delays and the [ambulance service] Trust and its partners remain concerned about the impact of the delays on patients and their care.

“In particular, YAS is focused on reducing the significant impact these delays can have on the availability of emergency ambulances to respond to patients in the community.”

Improvements

The YAS emergency operations centre took 102,000 calls in December 2024, which represents a small increase of 1.7% on December 2023. The average call answering time is three seconds, down from seven seconds in 2023. The national standard is 10 seconds.

Service improvements in Sheffield and South Yorkshire include:

• The introduction of a senior streaming nurse in Sheffield to help navigate patients faster to where they need to go once at hospital, to help free up ambulance staff more quickly.
• Increased ‘hear and treat’ rates, where a clinician is able to provide treatment and advice over the phone and identify an alternative, more appropriate service for patients.
• Increased staff being taken on during 2024, with 67 new paramedics and 49 ambulance support workers or ambulance care assistants in South Yorkshire.
• The number of ambulances working in South Yorkshire has also been increased from 112 to 129.
• The introduction of more clinical pathways available to those patients who require access to healthcare but don’t need to attend the emergency department.
• Specialist paramedics in mental health are improving the clinical care being delivered to patients undergoing a mental health crisis.
• At Middlewood ambulance station in Sheffield, a specialist team introduced last year work around the clock to prepare 999 vehicles, ensuring they are fully equipped, refuelled and restocked. This service is due to be introduced in Longley, Sheffield this year.