MP and health campaigner Helen Morgan has said she remains ‘worried sick’ about emergency care in Shropshire but is relieved that some progress has been made.
The number of ambulances waiting more than 30 minutes to hand over patients at Shropshire’s hospitals has fallen, but patients taken to Shrewsbury and Telford are still forced to wait twice as often as the national average according to data compiled by the BBC.
In the week commencing December 4th this year, 64% of the 639 arrivals at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital waited over half an hour to be handed over to A&E staff. In 2022, 76% of the 550 arrivals were left waiting over half an hour. This compares to the English national average of 34% - leaving Shropshire near the bottom of the league table once again.
New data also shows that 50% of Shropshire patients waited longer than four hours to be treated at A&E in November, compared to an English average of 30%.
North Shropshire MP Helen Morgan has been a longstanding campaigner on ambulance wait times in the county. She has welcomed news that Shrewsbury and Telford Hospitals will see over 50 extra beds from the start of January, but is worried about the continuing impact of long wait times over Christmas.
Helen Morgan MP said, “Our NHS is in a state of crisis, and Shropshire continues to perform worse than almost any other area in the country.
“We are beginning to see some improvements, with a notably lower proportion of patients spending over 30 minutes in an ambulance outside A&E than last year, but I am still worried sick about the impact long waits will have over Christmas.
“The 50 extra beds being funded will be vital to cutting wait times, but we are only seeing the benefits of this from January when we need urgent action right away.”
North Shropshire MP Helen Morgan has welcomed the Government’s announcement to provide additional funding for Shropshire Council’s social care commitments, but has warned it will not be enough to relieve the extreme pressure on the health service...
North Shropshire MP Helen Morgan has asked the Chief Executive of the Shropshire NHS ICB for an urgent update over a promised emergency package to protect Shropshire’s emergency services over the winter.
Ambulance delays for life-threatening calls in the West Midlands reached a new record high in December, shocking new NHS figures have revealed.
Shocking figures have unveiled the local areas in England with the longest ambulance delays, revealing a stark “postcode lottery” for response times to life-threatening calls.
Helen Morgan gives a first-hand account of her 12-hour shift with a West Midlands Ambulance Service crew in Shropshire: It’s midday on a wet and windy Friday afternoon. Normally I’d be in a village hall for an advice surgery with constituents. Instead, I’m hurtling down an A road being deafened by a siren in the back of an ambulance.
North Shropshire MP Helen Morgan has called on Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak to set out a plan to fix the ambulance crisis, after new NHS figures revealed record delays for heart attack and stroke patients.
North Shropshire MP Helen Morgan has told the Government to stop passing the buck to local health leaders and urgently set out a strategy to tackle ambulance delays as the number of serious incidents in the region increased by nearly 300% in one year.
Helen Morgan, MP for North Shropshire, has responded to a nationwide poll showing 61% of people are worried about dangerously long waits for A&E and ambulances. Helen said, “It’s completely understandable that people are worried about ambulance and A&E waits, which are indeed dangerously long here in Shropshire."
North Shropshire’s MP demanded the new Health Secretary make fixing the ambulance crisis his number one priority as MPs from across the political divide highlighted the broken system in a debate in Parliament. Helen Morgan described the scale of ambulance delays as “absolutely shocking” as she highlighted the case of an 85-year-old woman with dementia who had to wait 18 hours.
North Shropshire MP Helen Morgan told the Government to wake up and act as she tabled a motion in Parliament on the ambulance crisis. The Lib Dem MP put forward the motion as seriously-injured patients continue to face huge waits for ambulances, with rural areas like North Shropshire facing the worst delays.
Forty patients were forced to wait more than 10 hours in ambulances outside hospitals in Shropshire in one month as handover delays reached their worst ever level – leading to a top nurse warning of imminent collapse.
North Shropshire MP Helen Morgan is pressing for a review into the ambulance crisis in Shropshire ahead of a meeting with Health Minister Edward Agar.
The Liberal Democrats have called on the Health Secretary Sajid Javid to promise to not close another Ambulance Station without a proper assessment as it has been revealed West Midlands Ambulance Service - his own local service - have closed 57 in the last 5 years.
Helen Morgan, Liberal Democrat MP for North Shropshire, has secured a meeting with Health Minister Edward Argar following her Thursday evening debate on Shropshire’s ambulance crisis.
Speaking in a debate in the House of Commons today, the MP for North Shropshire Helen Morgan has urged the Government to do more to tackle the ongoing ambulance crisis across Shropshire and the rest of the country.
Helen Morgan, Liberal Democrat MP for North Shropshire, has secured a debate in the House of Commons on Ambulance Response Times in Shropshire, following her Point of Order last week.
Helen Morgan Liberal Democrat MP for North Shropshire will this weekend put forward a party policy motion at the Liberal Democrats Spring Conference.
