AMBULANCE crews are losing vital minutes on 999 calls by spending too long handing over patients to doctors at Nottingham's hospitals.
Figures released by East Midlands Ambulance Service show that for 22 months – from April 2011 to January 2013 – the service's average handover time had consistently missed a 15-minute target at both the Queen's Medical Centre and City Hospital.
Ambulance staff are expected to transfer patients and pass on information in 15 minutes of their arrival.
They should then take no more than a further 15 minutes to be available for their next call.
A paramedic for EMAS said the service was not entirely to blame for the delays as in several cases paramedics can be forced to spend longer than 15 minutes handing over patients because the hospital cannot accommodate them.
Paramedic John McGrath, 43, said: "It is a big issue. Ultimately the longer our crews spend at hospital the less time they spend on the road dealing with 999 calls.
"It is difficult to apportion blame. Delays can sometime be the fault of the hospital because they don't have enough room. Another problem is when we have attended a complex job. Sometimes we have to clean the ambulance afterwards – which takes time."
In a bid to cut handover times – which have on occasion been as long as three hours – Nottingham University Hospitals Trust has invested in electrical sensors on the doors of the accident and emergency department at QMC and taken on 30 extra nurses and support workers.
The sensors collect information about the patient from the trolley carrying them and details are sent to a computer system.
The ambulance service said it has already successfully trialled this idea at King's Mill Hospital, in Sutton-in-Ashfield.
Fines are also set to be imposed which, depending on whose fault it is, will have to be paid either by the ambulance service or the hospital trust.
Mr McGrath, who has worked for the ambulance service for the past 20 years, added: "From what I have heard from my colleagues the system at King's Mill seems to working very well."
Dr Demas Esberger, clinical director for acute medicine at NUH, said: "We are working closely with EMAS to reduce unnecessary waits and further improve the timeliness of care for our emergency patients. We have invested additional resource to make improvements, including recruiting 30 extra nurses and support workers and using new technology to speed up clinical handovers when there are peaks in ambulance attendances."
A spokesperson for East Midlands Ambulance Service said hospital manager had already taken steps to make the process quicker.
"To allow us to monitor performance accurately, we have installed transmitters on ambulance stretcher trolleys and our Toughbooks (computers used to record patient details and treatment given).
"Sensors at the entrance to A&E now record the arrival and departure of crews automatically which allows us to identify and manage any delays."
Although the City Hospital has no emergency department, patients are taken there for specialist treatment for conditions such as strokes.
