Thousands Wait Hours in Ambulances as West Midlands Hospitals Face Crisis

Thousands of patients across the West Midlands endured waits exceeding six hours in ambulances before being admitted to hospitals this winter, according to exclusive data analyzed by FactCheck.

The findings reveal a critical situation far exceeding the NHS target in England, which stipulates that all ambulance “handovers” – where paramedics transfer patients to hospital staff – should be completed within 15 minutes.

In January, the average handover time in the West Midlands reached 80 minutes, the longest in England. However, the newly revealed data exposes even more alarming individual cases between October 2025 and January 2026.

More than 50,000 patients waited over an hour in ambulances, with over 5,500 people enduring waits exceeding six hours. Most concerning, more than 100 patients waited 12 hours or longer, with the most extreme case involving a patient who waited outside Royal Stoke hospital for 17 hours in December 2025.

The potential health consequences of these delays are significant. A 2021 report by the Association of Ambulance Chief Executives found that more than 80 percent of patients who waited over one hour outside hospitals “potentially experienced some level of harm,” with 9 percent potentially experiencing “severe harm.”

Among those facing extended waits, approximately 1,000 patients waiting over six hours were suffering from serious suspected conditions, including breathing problems, suspected strokes, or risk of cardiac arrest. While these initial assessments were made by 999 call handlers and may have changed upon medical examination, the delays represent a serious concern for patient outcomes.

The crisis has hit some facilities particularly hard. Of the more than 5,500 people who waited over six hours, around 2,500 were at just two hospitals – Royal Stoke and Heartlands – representing nearly half of all six-hour waits despite these being just two of the region’s 20 hospitals.

In October 2025, the situation at Heartlands hospital was especially dire, with one in seven ambulance arrivals waiting at least six hours outside the facility – the highest proportion for any hospital during the analyzed period.

Healthcare professionals attribute these delays primarily to overwhelmed A&E departments lacking space to admit additional patients. While patients can receive some care in ambulances, including oxygen and certain medications, the extended waits create a cascading problem throughout the emergency response system.

“During the hours that an ambulance is held up waiting at a hospital, it’s out of action and cannot be redeployed to pick up other sick patients in the community,” explained one healthcare professional familiar with the situation. This reduces overall ambulance service capacity, affecting more than just the waiting patient.

The West Midlands ambulance service acknowledged the correlation between hospital handover delays and response times, stating: “We will continue to work with our partners in hospitals to find new ways of reducing the handover delays so that we can get to patients in our communities even faster than we do at the moment.”

Hospital administrators recognize the severity of the problem. The NHS Trust responsible for Royal Stoke hospital noted they are “working intensively with our partners” to reduce delays, while claiming they are “already seeing improvements in patient flow and faster handover times.”

Similarly, the NHS Trust overseeing Heartlands hospital reported making “significant improvements for patients throughout February and into March,” emphasizing that patients are assessed on arrival and prioritized according to clinical need.

The analysis conducted by FactCheck examined 1.3 million journeys by West Midlands ambulance service between October 2023 and January 2026, with particular focus on the 188,000 journeys from October 2025 to January 2026.

The data showed patients had an 8.5 percent chance of waiting six hours in an ambulance at Heartlands hospital this winter, and a 7.5 percent chance at Royal Stoke. The next highest rates were at Royal Shrewsbury and Good Hope hospitals, both at 5 percent.

As hospitals and ambulance services work to address these systemic issues, the data highlights persistent challenges in emergency healthcare delivery across the West Midlands, with potentially severe consequences for patient outcomes and overall emergency response capabilities.