PARAMEDICS are wasting thousands of hours stuck outside hospitals when they could be responding to other 999 calls, the Echo has learned.

Ambulance staff have lost more than 7,000 working hours in four months due to handover delays at hospitals in the region.

Figures from South Western Ambulance Service Foundation Trust (SWASFT) show that ambulances regularly wait over 30 minutes to transfer patients, losing more than 60 hours per day.

This is despite a delay of just 15 minutes being labelled ‘zero tolerance’ by the NHS.

It means that patients are potentially waiting longer for an ambulance when they call 999 because paramedics are tied up in a queue outside A &E departments.

In August, the latest reported month, 20 per cent of ‘red’ category patients– those in the most serious condition– waited up to 32 minutes for an ambulance.

Twenty per cent of ‘amber’ category patients, where a blue light emergency response is required due to ‘potentially serious condition’ waited up to 87 minutes for a response.

Richard Drax, MP for South Dorset, asked the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government to make ambulances and A&E funding a priority, while re-examining how the NHS is run.

Speaking during an adjournment debate on ambulance waiting times, Mr Drax said:“We really ought to think about the whole NHS and how it is run, not just the ambulance service.

"We need to do that free of politicians, with expert advice being sought from those who know how the health system works so that we can re-look at this whole situation.

"We have enough money, but we have not spent it particularly wisely in every case.”

NHS targets were exacerbating the problems, added Mr Drax.

He added that handovers at hospital frequently breach the 30-minute target handover time, incurring fines and increasing the pressure on cash-strapped trusts.

“Yet, handovers can be achieved only if there are available beds and bays in the emergency department, which in turn can free up space only by transferring patients to wards or into surgery," he added.

"That flow—from ambulance to emergency department to ward and, hopefully, to home and recovery—simply is not happening, because beds are not being cleared.”

SWASFT said ambulances stuck at hospitals are not available to other patients and that it reviews the situation on a monthly basis. It is one of the top performing trusts for minimising handover delays.

A spokesman added: “On average, more than 50% of our patients are treated via other, more appropriate, care pathways.

“SWASFT works hard with the 18 acute hospitals in the South West to minimise handover delays in their emergency departments.

“It also works closely with its commissioners to ensure a collaborative approach to managing pressures on delivering high quality emergency care and handover delays are reported to clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) and reviewed on a monthly basis."