Ambulance crews faced more than 1,800 hours of delays in handing over patients to a hospital emergency department in just one week – and a boss has branded the current situation "unacceptable".

During another week last month, patients faced an average handover time of more than two hours, figures presented to a hospital board meeting revealed.

University Hospitals of North Midlands (UHNM) NHS Trust, which runs Royal Stoke and Stafford's County Hospital, has continued to face challenging winter conditions since critical incidents were declared in December and January.

 At the January meeting, UHNM board members were told the Royal Stoke was having to contend with both ambulance arrivals and bed occupancy rates being much higher than expected.

Speaking at the latest board meeting on Wednesday (March 12), UHNM's chief executive Simon Constable said: "Since the last public board meeting (in January), we have had a really difficult few weeks. 

"I think it is fair to say we went into winter in October, and as we went into winter there has been problem after problem ever since.

"A number of factors have played into that and some were out of our control. Infectious diseases, of which there have been multiple, have played a real part in denting our resilience.

"We had 120 patients with flu at one time in January, Covid and RSV (respiratory syncytial virus) and more recently norovirus. 

"This is a really debilitating infection – one of the most from a patient's point of view – and its effect on patient flow cannot be overstated.

"While there are external factors, there are a lot of things we need to fix from an internal point of view to make things better than the current situation. One is ambulance holds, both in terms of length and number of holds.

"In the week commencing January 27, we lost 1,729 hours as a result of ambulance holds and in the week commencing February 24 we lost 1,806. 

"However, last week (week commencing March 3) that was 936 hours, so there has been a significant improvement.

"That's the best figure we have had since December. But that is still unacceptable."

A UEC (Urgent and Emergency Care) Recovery Director has been brought in at UHNM to help improve performance. There is also a UEC improvement plan in place.

Actions have included standing down non-urgent elective work where possible to increase medical capacity, as well as standing down outpatient appointments to allow additional speciality teams within ED to support admission avoidance, a report to the board said.

 Work is also taking place to increase the number of patient discharges each week to free up bedspace, with an extra 50 beds opened at community hospitals across North Staffordshire.

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