Six new ambulance hubs and 42 new and upgraded discharge lounges are opening at hospitals across the country, with the aim of helping to cut urgent and emergency care waiting times for patients.
In certain areas, ambulance queues to hand patients over to hospital care can be made worse due to a lack of physical space. The ambulance hubs will increase efficiency – cutting out unnecessary delays and getting ambulances back on the road faster, ensuring they can reach people as quickly as possible.
Four of the new hubs – located at the Princess Royal Hospital in Telford Shropshire, the Leicester Royal Infirmary, the James Cook Hospital in Middlesbrough, and the Doncaster Royal – are already live and providing additional urgent and emergency care capacity. Two further hubs will come into use this summer at the Queen’s Hospital in Romford, east London, and the Glenfield Hospital in Leicester.
Feedback from Trusts suggests that 1,000 patients have already benefitted from the ambulance hubs so far. The Doncaster Royal has met national targets for ambulance handovers every day since its hub opened, while the Leicester Royal Infirmary has reported an 86% reduction in hours lost to delays since November 2022.
Health and Social Care Secretary Steve Barclay said: "These new ambulance hubs and discharge lounges are another example of how we’re investing to cut waiting times – one of the Government’s top five priorities. They are already benefitting tens of thousands of patients by freeing up beds and reducing the time for patients waiting to be admitted from A&E.
"The hubs will allow ambulances to manoeuvre more quickly and cut out unnecessary delays, and the lounges will free up hospital beds, while offering patients a more comfortable environment to recover in while they’re waiting to leave hospital. All of this is to ensure we can bring down waiting times and prepare for next winter."
