The East of England Ambulance Service (EEAS) moved its operational status to Major Incident Standby on Saturday (2 October) in an effort to tackle delays.
By raising its operational status, the service is able to prioritise the sickest patients, use overtime incentives to encourage more staff on shifts and cancel meetings and training to maximise the number of available staff.
Our service is under extreme pressure. Ambulances delayed outside hospitals & high call volumes. We have increased our escalation state across the Trust. Please support us by using our services wisely & only calling for life-threatening illnesses & injuries
— EEAST Ambulance Service (@EastEnglandAmb) October 2, 2022
In a statement, a spokesperson for EEAS said: “The NHS is currently facing incredibly high demand and we are working very closely with our partners to speed up handover delays at hospitals to improve care for our patients.
“We experienced increased pressure across the Eastern region over the weekend caused by lengthy handover delays at some hospitals and 999 demand.
“We moved to major incident standby on Saturday night and have remained at that level of escalation to enable us to better direct our resources to focus on patient care.”
The service says it has put in place new hospital ambulance liaison officers at hospitals to speed up handovers and new systems to pre-alert hospitals about the sickest patients, and direct non-urgent patients to other services where appropriate.
Earlier this year, a Care Quality Commission report revealed emergency ambulance response times in the region are more than double the national target.
In June, Thérèse Coffey MP, who is now the Secretary of State for Health, described EEAST figures as “shockingly bad”.
