RISING numbers of emergency calls - combined with people using A&E for non-serious complaints - has forced ambulances to queue outside the doors of the area's hospital.

Pictures showing ambulances parked at Furness General Hospital emerged last week as crews attempted to formally hand over patients to emergency department medics as quickly as possible.

The issue is causing concern for ambulance bosses and their staff as they struggle to free themselves promptly to respond to more incoming 999 calls within key response time targets.

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Ged Blezard, director of operations for the North West Ambulance Service NHS Trust, said: "The Trust has seen a rise in emergency calls right across the North West meaning that we are extremely busy, which is also the same for other areas of the NHS, including A&E departments.

"This increase in activity along with longer handovers at hospitals does cause significant challenges for the ambulance service and we are continuing to invest into changing the way that our service is delivered."

Barrow has just two full time ambulances on call for the area.

Ulverston has one full time and one part time, while Millom and Grange are served by one each.

But photographs show six outside the Dalton Road hospital all at once during a busy period.

Department of Health guidelines state ambulance handover times should take no more than 30 minutes to allow paramedics to respond to the next call.

If several are forced to wait outside hospitals, the number covering a wide geographical area of Furness is drastically reduced.

Mr Blezard added: "We are focusing on initiatives that aim to reduce the amount of patients that we take to hospital. This will hopefully ease pressure on A&E departments and reduce the number of ambulances waiting at hospital.

"As always, we do urge the public to support us by only dialing 999 for life-threatening and potentially life-threatening emergencies."

FGH, run by the University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Trust, are working to improve the flow of patients through A&E and onto the wards to keep handover times from paramedics - as well as waiting times for other arrivals - as low as possible.

Foluke Ajayi, chief operating officer at the trust said though there had been no critically busy periods in Barrow's A&E department for several weeks, the arrival of ambulances in clusters had impacted upon patient handover times.

Mrs Ajayi added: "On April 21 33 ambulances attended the emergency department at Furness General Hospital.

"This is not an excessive number and would be regarded as fairly normal.

“In addition, our ambulance pressure times were between 11am and noon when

four ambulances attended within 10 minutes of each other.

“Between noon and 1pm five ambulances attended – three of which were only minutes apart, and between 4pm and 5pm four ambulances attended.

“On this day, the numbers of ambulances arriving at the same time would have caused us difficulty in handing over in a timely manner.”

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