East of England Ambulance Service and Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust are working together to reduce patient handover delays as ambulances arrive at Southend University Hospital. Castle Point MP, Rebecca Harris visited Southend Hospital to see the newly installed Ambulance Handover Unit. The new £250,000 ambulance handover unit has space for 12 patients.  The facility will allow for some ambulances to safely hand over patients meaning more vehicles and crews are available to attend emergencies in the South East Essex area.

Rebecca, along with her South Essex MP colleagues, has been tirelessly lobbying Southend Hospital and the East of England Ambulance Service to solve the issue of ambulances acting as temporary beds at A&E at busy times.

Rebecca Harris MP commented:

“I am very pleased that the new ambulance patient handover unit has opened at Southend Hospital. We have been lobbying the hospital and the East of England Ambulance Service to solve the issue of ambulances stacking up at A&E at busy times to drop off patients when they should be on the road attending emergencies. The opening of this new unit should do a great deal to tackle the problem and get ambulances back out on the roads as soon as possible. A massive well done and thank you to all the NHS staff involved in making the new unit a reality and for getting it set up in time for Winter.”

The external unit will be used to ‘cohort’ patients, allowing supervision under a dedicated clinician, rather than tying-up double staffed ambulance crews to wait to hand over a patient for admission to the hospital.  Patients will be monitored regularly by nurses, healthcare assistants and ambulance crews checking on their condition before admission to the hospital emergency department.

Tom Abell, Chief Executive at EEAST said:

“The introduction of an Ambulance Handover Unit at Southend University Hospital will release more vehicles and crews for responding to emergencies. It will also help us to meet the challenges of the coming winter months when we know demand will increase.  When people call 999 the public expects the ambulance service to attend, units like this will help make sure that we can.”