West Midlands ambulance handover delays worsen with 32,810 hours lost in September

Aidan Brown, WMAS's service transformation and patient safety director, told the board that earlier hopes of improvement had faded. "Many of us were hopeful, optimistic that things were starting to improve towards the end of the last financial year," he said. "But we are just as bad if not worse than then." He added: "Patient harm is undoubtedly happening as a result of it." The board agreed to raise the risk rating attached to handover delays and to carry out more research into what the service can do.

September losses rise to 32,810 hours

The September total of 32,810 lost hours works out at about 3.7 years of ambulance time. In April 2026, the figure was 20,194 hours, or 2.3 years. Only 28.5% of September handovers were completed within 15 minutes. Some 22.7% exceeded an hour.

Across the first six months of 2026/27, WMAS lost 159,461 operational hours to handover delays, or 18.2 years. The service had hoped to limit losses to 83,288 hours; delays so far this year were 76,173 hours worse than that target.

The board was told that delays had "deteriorated significantly since June 2026, reaching levels only previously exceeded during the 2022 system pressures". The board was told that 2022 was the worst recorded year for hospital handover delays. The board also noted that Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust had shown "sustained improvement" in its handover performance.

Patient harm and provider concerns

WMAS serves a population of six million people across Shropshire, Herefordshire, Worcestershire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, Coventry, Birmingham and the Black Country. There are some 17 full emergency departments in the area. National guidance sets a maximum 45-minute handover. WMAS chief executive Anthony Marsh has written to NHS leaders warning of "significant concerns" as "no provider" is planning to hit that target.

A board member told colleagues he had ridden incognito in an ambulance and found staff at one unnamed hospital putting pressure on paramedics to keep a patient in the back of the vehicle.

Staff survey reports harm

A Unison survey of more than 600 frontline emergency staff in England found that three in five said a patient's condition worsened while in their care. Some 3% reported patients dying because they could not be handed to A&E quickly enough.

Nearly three quarters had waited in the back of an ambulance while queuing to hand over a patient, and the same proportion had waited in a corridor. Just over half, 52%, had taken patients to X-ray, CT scans or other tests and then returned them to the back of an ambulance. Unison said patients spend up to 12 hours stuck in vehicles or on hospital trolleys.

Sharan Bandesha, Unison's national ambulance officer, called for planning for year-round pressures, investment in staffing and ambulance services, and action to free up hospital beds. The Department of Health and Social Care called it "unacceptable" that patients are left waiting in ambulances. It said urgent action included expanding urgent treatment centres and care in the community.

What happens next

WMAS chiefs were told the coming winter is "likely to see significant further deterioration". A report added that "despite assurances" from other parts of the NHS "there has been no sustained improvement".