Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to reduce the time patients are waiting in ambulances before transfer to the Emergency Department at Royal Shrewsbury Hospital.

Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust is working with West Midlands Ambulance Service (WMAS) and community partners to reduce conveyances of some patients to hospital as clinically appropriate, providing alternate treatment and care at home or in the community. The Trust is also working with WMAS to cohort ambulance patients at accident and emergency (A&E) departments. A single ambulance crew takes responsibility for three to four patients within the A&E department, releasing crews to respond to outstanding calls in the community.

Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin Integrated Care System has also launched a winter health campaign until the end of March, encouraging the use of NHS 111 and local pharmacies. Ambulances have direct access to a same day emergency care centre at Royal Shrewsbury Hospital to avoid conveying patients to A&E where appropriate. The Trust is also maximising patient flow through the hospital to improve A&E performance and patient handover times.