Wolverhampton hospital trust fined £770,000 for ambulance delays in two years
A hospital trust has been fined more than £770,000 over the last two years because of ambulance delays, it has been revealed.
The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust, which runs New Cross Hospital, has been made to pay huge fines due to the number of ambulances left queuing outside the city hospital’s A&E.
Hospitals are punished for the number of patients left waiting in ambulances for more than 15 minutes. Health chiefs have criticised the system of fining hospital trusts for missing NHS targets, particularly as many are already under financial strain, insisting the money could be better spent improving care.
New figures showed the health trust, which also runs Cannock Chase Hospital, has been paying out thousands of pounds every month over the delays.
A total of £772,600 was shelled out in fines since April 2016.
The most costly single month during that period was January 2017, when bosses were forced to part with an eye-watering £105,800.
The fine last month was £35,400 after 122 patients waited at least half an hour to be transferred to hospital. Another 11 patients were kept waiting more than an hour.
Pressures due to the number of patients and staffing issues have been blamed for the struggles in getting patients into beds in quick time.
Hospital bosses have complained about having to pay fines when most trusts in the country are missing key NHS targets, such as A&E waiting times.
Chief executive David Loughton has previously labelled the fines a ‘waste of public money’.
New Cross continues to fall short of the target of having 95 per cent of A&E patients seen within four hours. However, there was an improvement in performance during April to 84 per cent, up from 74 per cent in March.
A trust spokeswoman said: “Despite seeing increasingly more ambulances, our handover times are improving thanks to the hard work of staff from our trust and from the West Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust.
“We always strive to provide the best, high quality, safe care we can for every one of our patients and we have a good working relationship with the West Midlands Ambulance Service which helps us provide the care our patients deserve when they arrive here.”
