More than 4,000 sick patients have had to wait for more than an hour outside hospitals in ambulances, the Manchester Evening News can reveal.
The startling figures from official NHS statistics come as NHS bosses prepare for further ambulance service strike action in Greater Manchester next week, with members of the GMB and Unison unions due to walk out on Wednesday.
A week later, members of the Royal College of Nursing are due to strike on January 18 and 19, affecting the Christie NHS Foundation Trust, Tameside and Glossop Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust and Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust in Greater Manchester.
The Manchester Evening News has already revealed that over the course of just one day last month, almost 150 sick patients had to wait more than an hour to be seen by A&E teams after being taken to hospitals in Greater Manchester by ambulance.
Now, as cases of flu surge across the region, prompting health bosses to issue an urgent warning over vaccinations and oxygen availability as more than 400 patients currently remain in hospital, we can reveal there were a total of 28,971 ambulance arrivals at A&E departments in the region between November 14, 2022 and January 1, 2023.
However, the current NHS crisis meant that 8,527 of those - 29 per cent - faced long handover delays, according to new data released by the NHS.
A total of 4,079 patients were forced to endure a delay of more than an hour between arrival and handover - 14 per cent of all arrivals. Meanwhile, the data shows a further 4,448 faced delays of between 30 and 60 minutes. The delays added up to a total of 7,196 lost hours for ambulance crews.
The figures for the region are made up of Wrightington, Wigan And Leigh NHS Foundation Trust (25 per cent over 60 minutes), Bolton NHS Foundation Trust (19 per cent over 60 minutes), Stockport NHS Foundation Trust (17 per cent over 60 minutes), Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust (14 per cent over 60 minutes), Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust (nine per cent over 60 minutes), and Tameside and Glossop Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust (eight per cent over 60 minutes).
In the last week alone, there have been 650 delays of up to an hour, and 879 delays of more than an hour, costing life-saving ambulance crews a combined total of 1,627 hours.
The Queen Elizabeth Hospital, King's Lynn, NHS Foundation Trust in Norfolk had the worst record of any trust in England. Some 59 per cent of all ambulance arrivals have had to wait more than an hour to be admitted at the trust since November 14, the data shows.
University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust, meanwhile, has had 58 per cent of arrivals wait for over an hour. East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust, Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust, and Torbay And South Devon NHS Foundation Trust, all had 52 per cent of arrivals wait over an hour.
NHS trusts have a target of 95 per cent of all ambulance handovers to be completed within 30 minutes, with 100 per cent within 60 minutes. A handover delay does not always mean a patient has waited in the ambulance. They may have been moved temporarily into part of an A&E building until staff were available to complete the handover. No exact times have been released.
One issue facing the NHS is an inability to discharge patients. The NHS publishes daily data on discharges. Using the last Thursday of December 2022 as a snapshot, the figures show how many people were taking up beds despite being well enough to leave.
Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust had 304 patients ready to be discharged, but was only able to release 12 of them. Stockport NHS Foundation Trust had 115 patients ready, but just seven were released.
Wrightington, Wigan And Leigh NHS Foundation Trust had 109 patients ready to be discharged, but was only able to release 22. Bolton NHS Foundation Trust had 147 patients ready, but was only able to release 37 of them.
Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust had 457 patients ready to be discharged, but less than half of those were - 207. Tameside Glossop Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust had 124 patients ready to be discharged - 81 were.
The statistics lay bare the crisis in social care as the majority of the patients were unable to leave because of a lack of suitable nursing accommodation or available care in the community facilities.
The Manchester Evening News has contacted North West Ambulance Service and the NHS in Greater Manchester for comment.
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