JUST 27 per cent of patients are handed over from ambulances to Southend Hospital inside the target time, “significantly affecting” the service’s ability to respond to waiting 999 calls.

New figures have revealed the speed with which ambulances get to critically ill patients in Essex has improved, but handover times continue to hamper Southend Hospital.

In 2023, on average, only 27 per cent of ambulances were able to hand over their patients within the 15 minute target at Southend Hospital and the average arrival to handover time was 33 minutes.

An East of England Ambulance Service report to Southend Council’s scrutiny committee says the target is "rarely being achieved".

It adds: “These delays are reducing the number of ambulances in operation and are significantly affecting our ability to respond to waiting 999 patients.”

Southend is set to have an £8m expansion of its A&E department but staffing issues could still weigh on its ability to provide speedy ambulance turnarounds.

Spending on bank staff in the first nine months of the financial year stood at £109million compared to £88million over the same period in 2022/23.

Anna Firth, Conservative MP for Southend West, has in the past voiced her concerns over ambulance handover delays.

Acknowledging the improvements in response times, she said: “I warmly welcome the news that there have been improvements on response times for the most severe cases but there is still more work to be done to ensure less severe cases are responded to more quickly.

“I know that some of the £118 million in capital funding for south Essex hospitals I helped to secure last year is going towards improvements at Southend Hospital A&E.

“I will continue to push the Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust to deliver these improvements”

According to the report, the East of England Ambulance Service average response times for the sickest “category 1” patients was six minutes and 27 seconds in 2023 in Southend compared to eight minutes and 25 seconds for the whole of Mid and South Essex.

So-called “category 2” patients, those suffering from chest pains or suspected of suffering strokes, on average have to wait for just under 40 minutes.

The report says the trust “continues to be on track with improving response times”.

Southend Hospital bosses vow to make improvements

The ambulance service has said it is “looking at ways in which we can improve our response times and increase our resources”. 

Response times at the East of England Ambulance service have improved, but bosses are shooting for more improvements.

Measures will include increasing frontline clinician numbers by 300, delivering a 10 per cent increase in ambulance hours.

The trust will also increase clinical cover within control rooms, and complete a rollout of advanced practice cars in both urgent and critical care in each county. These will be able to provide more specialist clinical care and support in patients’ homes.

Owen Richards, chief officer at Healthwatch Southend said there was room for improvements, particularly for stroke patients.

He said: “Healthwatch Southend is pleased to see the improvements in the performance of the East of England Ambulance Trust. 

“Whilst the response times for category 2 calls  like a suspected stroke or heart attack  appear to be within the target of 90 per cent of responses within 40 minutes, the NHS wants ambulance services to reduce this further to 30 minutes. 

“This is something residents of Southend would want to see. People are being encouraged by the NHS to act quickly if they think someone has had a stroke, so expect their calls to 999 resulting in a quick response.”