A hospital boss has described "some green shoots of recovery" after improvements to ambulance handover delays were seen in recent weeks – but he added that the current situation was still nowhere near where it needed to be.

And health campaigner Ian Syme, who has been monitoring the pressures on emergency services at Royal Stoke University Hospital for many years, said he felt "optimistic" about the steps being taken to reduce waiting times for patients by University Hospitals of North Midlands (UHNM) NHS Trust.

He welcomed work taking place across the wider hospital – not just the emergency department – to speed up patients' journeys through the system.

This includes action to discharge patients from hospital earlier in the day, if they are able to return home, as well as working with care homes to avoid admissions where possible.

In his report to Wednesday's UHNM trust board meeting, chief executive Dr Simon Constable said: "We all know that every minute matters when a patient arrives at hospital by ambulance.

How quickly we receive and assess them is not just a performance metric, it directly affects patient safety, clinical outcomes and the experience of people in our care.

"Improving ambulance handover times is our number one improvement priority, upon which so many other things are dependent. We have made some progress already.

"In November to December 2024 our average handover time was, sadly, two hours 13 minutes. For that same period in 2025, it was one hour 39 minutes; an improvement of 34 minutes but no way near good enough.

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"During 2025, the national average ambulance handover time across NHS trusts was 27 minutes. At UHNM, the average was one hour and 31 minutes – that massive difference matters.

"Ambulance handover delays are one of the most significant pressures we face, and we know we must do better for all our patients.

"In the week commencing 12th January 2026 we launched Release to Respond, a new national hospital-wide test of change building on what we have done already to improve flow, reduce delays and ensure patients get the right care, in the right place, at the right time.

"Release to Respond is a whole-hospital approach, undertaken in conjunction with the West Midlands Ambulance Service, to facilitate a maximum ambulance handover time of 45 minutes. It is not about rushing or cutting corners – safety always comes first.

"But being organised, responsive and joined-up allows us to provide safer, more compassionate care for everyone; this is about how we work together across ED (emergency departments), wards, diagnostics, clinical and corporate teams, to keep patients moving safely through our hospitals.

"It's about recognising that every handover, every decision and every delay has an impact beyond our immediate area."

Latest figures presented to Wednesday's meeting revealed that the average ambulance handover time "dropped by approximately 52 minutes to one hour, 10mins 56secs, with January reporting as worse than plan at 1hr 38mins 8secs."

In a question to the board, Mr Syme said: "For some baffling reason ambulance handover delays at West Midlands acute hospital emergency departments are significantly worse than in the rest of England.

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"Today's CEO Report is very clear in as much as it specifically states and emphasises 'every handover, every decision, every delay has an impact beyond an immediate area'.

"UHNM are clearly sighted on dramatically improving UEC (urgent and emergency care) performance. A Release to Respond initiative has significantly reduced ambulance handover delays throughout England and is now being utilised at UHNM.

"UHNM handover delays in December 2025 were circa 95 mins, which is over three times greater than the all England mean (31 mins) for ambulance handovers at English EDs and 30 mins greater than the West Midlands mean of 64.8 mins What if any improvement is UHNM now experiencing by implementing both the 'Continuous Flow Model' and Release to Respond initiative?"

Interim chief operating officer Katy Thorpe responded: "For the past couple of weeks we have seen a reduction in ambulance handover times. It has fluctuated between weeks.

"Ambulance handover time isn't solely driven by emergency department attendance, it's primarily driven through internal capacity constraint.

"We have seen a focused piece of work done on improving our discharges, improving them earlier in the day; anything after 4pm impacts on the day after, whereas anything before 4pm impacts on today's work."

Dr Constable added: "Although we are nowhere near where we need it to be, in the last eight weeks six of those have shown week on week improvements on last year. That's a powerful indicator we must be doing something right, despite an increased level of attendances year on year.

"There are some green shoots of recovery. But please be assured we are not accepting the current status as enough."

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