Dr Allison Gardner

I thank the hon. Member for Chelmsford (Marie Goldman) for securing the debate. I wish to raise the serious and long-standing problem of ambulance delays at the Royal Stoke university hospital, which is run by the University Hospitals of North Midlands trust and is situated in the neighbouring constituency of Stoke-on-Trent Central. Many of my Stoke-on-Trent South constituents, local campaigners such as Ian Syme, and West Midlands ambulance service have repeatedly raised with me their concerns about this crisis. Ambulance handover is the point at which responsibility for a patient transfers from the ambulance crew to the hospital team. NHS England guidance specifies that it should take place within 15 minutes of an ambulance arriving at a hospital. Between April and September this year, the average wait at the Royal Stoke was one hour and 33 minutes, and the longest was 17 hours and 41 minutes. Only 16% of handovers met the 15-minute standard, making the Royal Stoke the worst-performing hospital in the west midlands on that measure. House of Commons Library research indicates that it is the third worst in the country. Such handover delays cause harm and increase the number of avoidable deaths. This is not a recent problem: for most months since 2023, the trust’s handover times have been among the longest in the country. To be clear, this is not an attack on frontline NHS staff. Our paramedics, ambulance crews and emergency department staff are working under immense pressure, often to the point of burnout, and I acknowledge some of the outstanding work that happens at the Royal Stoke. But there is a false narrative that the problem is the result of more people turning up to A&E. It is not. A&E attendance figures at the Royal Stoke remain broadly stable, so deeper questions need to be asked about the overall culture, the patient flow through the system and the response of senior leadership. In August, the CQC conducted an inspection of the A&E and correctly instructed that the 15 corridor care spaces at the Royal Stoke be closed. I support the principle behind that decision, but closing those spaces does not address the problems that led to patients being treated in corridors in the first place, nor have those closures caused the long-standing ambulance delays, which existed before. In September 2025, NHS England took enforcement action against UHNM, yet a year later—this September—average ambulance handover delays at the Royal Stoke still hit two hours. There has been a failure of oversight and accountability. Having attended the recent UHNM board meeting and spoken with the integrated care board chair, I acknowledge that actions are being taken to address the problem. I am pleased that, on my suggestion, the ICB chair has agreed to convene a joint meeting of senior people and MPs to address the issue of ambulance handover delays. However, more needs to be done, and questions must be raised as to how we got into this situation in the first place. My constituents deserve safe, timely treatment. Our frontline staff deserve a system that allows them to do their jobs properly. Will the Minister commit to taking direct oversight of ambulance handover delays at the Royal Stoke, commission an independent inquiry and set a clear timetable for improvement?