NORTH Shropshire MP Helen Morgan has said she is ‘worried sick’ about emergency care in Shropshire but is relieved that some progress has been made.
The number of ambulances waiting more than 30 minutes to hand over patients at Shropshire’s hospitals has fallen, but patients taken to Shrewsbury and Telford hospitals are still forced to wait twice as often as the national average, according to data from the BBC.
She said that while there are some improvements in the service, she remains concerned over the impact on services over the winter.
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“Our NHS is in a state of crisis, and Shropshire continues to perform worse than almost any other area in the country,” she said.
“We are beginning to see some improvements, with a notably lower proportion of patients spending over 30 minutes in an ambulance outside A&E than last year, but I am still worried sick about the impact long waits will have over Christmas.
“The 50 extra beds being funded will be vital to cutting wait times, but we are only seeing the benefits of this from January when we need urgent action right away.”
According to the data seen by Mrs Morgan, in the week starting on Monday, December 4, 64 per cent of the 639 arrivals at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital waited more than half an hour to be handed over to A&E staff.
In 2022, 76 per cent of the 550 arrivals were left waiting over half an hour.
This compares to the English national average of 34 per cent – leaving Shropshire near the bottom of the league table once again.
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New data also shows that 50 per cent of Shropshire patients waited longer than four hours to be treated at A&E in November, compared to an English average of 30 per cent.
Mrs Morgan has been a longstanding campaigner on ambulance wait times in the county.
She has welcomed news that Shrewsbury and Telford Hospitals will see more than 50 extra beds from the start of January, but is worried about the continuing impact of long wait times over Christmas.
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