NEARLY 6,000 ambulances arriving at Royal Bournemouth and Poole hospitals have breached a key NHS waiting time requirement, new figures show.

Over December, January and February – the three busiest months in the NHS’s history – 5,966 ambulances had to wait more than 15 minutes to hand over patients at the conurbation’s main hospitals.

In a letter seen by The Guardian newspaper, which it claimed was sent to all NHS Trust chief executives on November 15 2017, senior NHS officials said: "Acute trusts must always accept handover of patients within 15 minutes of an ambulance arriving at the Emergency Department (ED) or other urgent admission facility.

"Leaving patients waiting in ambulances or in a corridor supervised by ambulance personnel is inappropriate.

"The patient is the responsibility of the ED from the moment that the ambulance arrives outside the ED department, regardless of the exact location of the patient."

Figures released by South Western Ambulance Service show that during December 2017 1,080 ambulances were kept waiting for between 15 and 30 minutes at Poole, with 706 waiting this time period in Bournemouth. During the same month – as winter pressures gripped the NHS - 2,364 ambulances arrived at Poole, with 2,061 arriving at Bournemouth.

A spokesperson for South Western Ambulance Service said “We work very closely with our local hospitals to ensure handover times are minimised and work jointly to agreed protocols to provide the best care to patients.”

And both Poole and Royal Bournemouth hospitals said their turnaround times were actually improving.

Deputy Chief Operating Officer at RBCH Donna Parker, said: “This winter has seen an unprecedented demand on our Emergency Department, and our dedicated staff work incredibly hard to make sure ambulance crews can hand patients over to us and get back on the road as quickly as possible.

“We have been working closely with our ambulance colleagues and despite these pressures, we’re pleased to see our turnaround times are improving," she said. "We also remain within the top trusts in the country for the number of patients we have seen and either admitted or discharged within the government’s four hour emergency department target.”

Mark Mould, chief operating officer, Poole Hospital, said the hospital’s turnaround figures had improved over the period.

"We always endeavour to free up ambulance crews as quickly as we can but as a consequence of extreme winter pressures we have experienced a high patient demand on our emergency department, with an increase number of very sick, frail and elderly patients requiring emergency care,” he said.

This, coupled with the flu epidemic: “Affected our ability to accommodate all ambulance arrivals at peak periods.

“It is our priority to make sure patients are safe and the ambulance crews get back on the road as soon as possible,” he said.