PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Accident and Emergency Departments (15 January 2018)

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure patients at accident and emergency departments do not spend an extended period of time waiting in ambulances before they are seen.

Asked by:
Stephen Morgan (Labour)

NHS Improvement and NHS England are taking a joint approach to reduce patient handover delays, including:

- improved monitoring and daily review of ambulance handover delays by national and regional winter operations teams;

- targeted assistance to hospital trusts to improve handover performance; and

- the issuing of revised, detailed hospital handover guidelines, focussing responsibility on the wider system to address handover delays, including clear escalation procedures.

Work is also underway to improve patient flows within the hospital, alongside improving discharge arrangements.

Answered by:
Steve Barclay (Conservative)
23 January 2018