Waiting times have fallen for people needing urgent care and ambulances parked outside hospital, bosses have revealed.

A critical incident was declared at the end of December by University Hospitals of North Midlands (UHNM) NHS Trust, which runs Royal Stoke and Stafford's County Hospital, due to high demand for emergency care.

Residents were warned some patients could face waits of more than 12 hours in emergency departments. In the days leading up to Christmas ambulances arriving at hospital were delayed outside by more than 940 hours over the course of the week while they waited to transfer sick patients.

But improvements to the situation have been seen in recent weeks, members of the trust board were told on Wednesday (March 8). And for the first time in almost two years the trust has met a target of at least 93% of patients with suspected cancer waiting no more than two weeks to see a specialist after being referred by their GP.

A critical incident was declared in December due to high demand for emergency care (West Midlands Ambulance Service).

The chief executive's report to Wednesday's board meeting said: "Over recent months we have been very challenged with the number of ambulances being held. However, due to the hard work of our staff, despite us seeing an increase in ambulance coming to our Emergency Department, we have recorded some of our lowest ambulance holds over the last few weeks.

"This is a significant positive step and was reflected in the fact that we are no longer one of the trusts undergoing national weekly meetings, although we do meet weekly with NHSE (NHS England) regional colleagues. Whilst we are still in the throes of winter and we need to sustain this, I am grateful to everyone involved in developing and embracing the changes made to make this improvement.

"I would also like to acknowledge that for the first time in nearly two years, we have met the two week target for cancer despite an ongoing increase in referrals. Again, this is thanks to a huge team effort and is great news for our patients.

"As well as the changes we have made internally, the improved performance has no doubt been supported by having no further flu admissions, a lower number of patients who are medically fit for discharge and Covid being static which means we have a lower bed occupancy and much better patient flow across our hospitals. But we do need to understand further the measures and actions which have been the most impactful."

Royal Stoke University Hospital, Stoke-on-Trent (Kerry Ashdown).

Leigh Griffin, one of the board's non-executive directors, told the meeting the improvements in urgent care and cancer waiting times had been offset by challenges around elective care however – particularly the number of people waiting up to 18 months for a planned procedure.

The trust is still dealing with a backlog of planned procedures in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. While it is expecting to meet a target of clearing two-year waits by the end of this month, it is anticipated there will be more than 140 patients who have waited around 18 months.

In December UHNM started using a corridor in A&E to care for up to 15 patients on trolleys in a bid to reduce the number of ambulances waiting outside the department. Board members heard last month that the practice, which had previously been eradicated at Royal Stoke, had reduced however as pressures eased.

UHNM board chairman David Wakefield asked at Wednesday's meeting: "Can you assure me patients are receiving appropriate care and not coming to harm in corridors?"

Chief Nurse Ann-Marie Riley replied: "We have no evidence at all of harm associated with that."

The trust is expecting to clear two-year waits by the end of this month (Google).

Chief executive officer Paul Bytheway said: "In urgent care we saw an improvement in January – a 9% increase in the four-hour performance, back up to 64%. The trust has to achieve 76% as part of the annual plan and we are pushing forward with that.

"We saw a reduction in 12-hour waits in January and we want this same decrease as we go to a more normal operating system. We have seen a decrease in ambulance holds and it's worth saying during February we have seen sub 350-hour holds every week during the last four weeks – the improvement we saw during January has got better."

Mr Wakefield said: "There have been significant improvements around ambulance holds. When can we expect to see the 76% (four hour wait target being met)?"

Mr Bytheway replied: "I'm hopeful by the end of Quarter One (June). We have a plan I think will get us there by the end of Quarter One.

"A lot of people have not had to work towards four hours for a couple of years and we need to do a massive re-energisation of why it's important. We know it's clinically important but it will take us time to re-engage people to get to that point."

READ MORE: Stoke prepares to celebrate His Majesty's Coronation with a number of events planned to mark the occasion

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