A STRUGGLING ambulance service could face a 'Titanic moment' and collapse completely this summer according to its nursing director.

Mark Docherty, nursing director for West Midlands Ambulance Service said patients were 'dying every day' from avoidable causes created by ambulance delays and told the Health Service Journal (HSJ) people were waiting in the back of ambulances for 24 hours before being admitted to hospital.

A document noted more than 100 serious incidents recorded in West Midlands Ambulance Service relate to patient deaths where the service has been unable to respond because ambulances are held up outside hospitals.

Mr Docherty said he predicts the service will collapse in August.

He said: "Around August 17 is the day I think it will all fail.

"I’ve been asked how I can be so specific, but that date is when a third of our resource (will be) lost to delays and that will mean we just can’t respond.

"Mathematically it will be a bit like a Titanic moment.

"It will be a mathematical (certainty) that this thing is sinking, and it will be pretty much beyond the tipping point by then.

"It would make me the happiest person in the world if everyone in the system proves to me that actually the ambulance service in the West Midlands isn’t going to fail on August 17 and I’ve got it completely wrong."

West Midlands Ambulance Service raised its risk rating for hand over delays to 25, the highest in its history.

Mr Docherty criticised NHS England officials for having downplayed tackling the problem of delayed discharge and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) for issuing improvement notices about hospital corridor care but not handover delays.

The nursing director said: "The 25 reflects patients are dying every day that shouldn’t be dying.

"Their deaths are entirely predictable and of a scale that means we need to be taking this really seriously.

"All of the issues that we’re building for the future are huge.

"And I don’t know why the CQC are not all over this, I don’t know why NHS England is not all over this."

An NHS spokesperson said it had received additional funding had been allocated to help deal with ambulance pressures.

They added: "The NHS has been working hard to reduce ambulance delays and £150 million of additional system funding has been allocated for ambulance service pressures in 2022-23.

"There is no doubt the NHS still faces pressures, and the latest figures are another reminder of the crucial importance of community and social care, in helping people in hospital leave when they are fit to do so, not just because it is better for them but because it helps free up precious NHS bed space."