By . Daily Mail Reporter . PUBLISHED: . 09:31 EST, 26 May 2013 . | . UPDATED: . 03:31 EST, 27 May 2013 . Up to 100 patients a day are being forced to wait more than an hour in ambulances outside overstretched A&E units. More than 37,000 people needing urgent treatment were held in so-called ambulance ‘jams’ last year – with delays of up to four hours recorded at some hospitals. The latest number is more than double the 14,580 who waited to be admitted in 2010-11, despite official guidelines that say patients should be handed over to medical staff within 15 minutes of arrival. Waiting: In thousands of cases, ambulances are having to queue up outside hospitals with patients inside their vehicles because A&E units are too busy . Even the number of those stuck in ambulances for 30 minutes have increased – from 99,661 three years ago to 193,088 last year. The delays in treatment come as many A&E departments are struggling to cope with a surge in patient numbers. Chaos in out-of-hours care and the . botched launch of the Government’s 111 non-emergency number have also . been accused of pushing many hospitals to breaking point. Earlier this year, staff at Norfolk . and Norwich University Hospital’s emergency unit were so stretched they . erected a tent in a car park to act as a makeshift ward. And in a leaked letter last week, 20 senior A&E doctors warned they could no longer guarantee safe care for patients. Jamie Reed, Labour’s health spokesman, said hospitals had reached ‘crisis point’. Closures: The devastating impact of casualties shutting across the nation . Delays: The ambulance service faces millions of pounds in fines if patients cannot be delivered to A&E units . ‘The collapse of social care, which . means older people cannot be discharged back home, the failure of the . new 111 helpline service, more than 4,000 nurses cut since the General . Election and walk-in centre closures are all piling pressure onto . A&E departments,’ he said. ‘The result is patients waiting . longer for treatment, being left on trolleys and unable to be . transferred to wards because the beds are occupied. Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt: He blames GPs for passing out of hours cases to unreliable private firms . ‘David Cameron is taking the NHS . backwards, with ambulances queuing outside A&E and one hospital even . having to erect a tent to receive patients.’ Last week, NHS Confederation boss . Mike Farrar also said emergency care was in a ‘state of crisis’ and . called for patients to be able to email their GP instead of going to see . them. However, Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt . has blamed the problem on GPs giving up responsibility for out-of-hours . care and allowing care to be provided by unreliable private firms. The number of patients who waited . longer than four hours in A&E has almost tripled in four years, from . 344,772 in 2009-10 to 888,289 last year, NHS figures reveal. Casualty units have been told to . treat 95 per cent of patients within four hours, but almost a third of . trusts failed to meet the target. An NHS England spokesman said: ‘While . more than 90 per cent of A&E patients are seen within this time, . waiting an average of 53 minutes, a high number of patients are still . waiting longer than we would want. ‘There is no single cause or factor . that can explain longer waits in A&E departments and issues vary . from hospital to hospital.’ A Department of Health spokesman said . the NHS is ‘coping well’ after the number of casualty patients rose by a . million in three years. ‘Patients shouldn’t face excessive . waits for treatment and we expect NHS England to take action to address . ambulance handover times, including fining trusts when there are delays . of 30 minutes or more,’ he said. Julie Bailey is fleeing the town where she was born . The campaigner who helped expose one of the country’s worst NHS disasters has been hounded out of her home town. Julie Bailey, pictured, set up Cure the NHS when her mother Bella died in 2007 after appalling standards of care. Miss Bailey, 51, called for an investigation into the Mid Staffordshire Hospitals NHS trust. Her campaign led to the inquiry which revealed that up to 1,200 patients had died needlessly. However, the cafe owner has now received a series of threats. Many have unfairly blamed her for the uncertainty surrounding the future of the local hospital – one of the area’s biggest employers. And residents have started to boycott her cafe. As a result, she has now decided she has no option but to leave the town where she  was born. She said: ‘People have been coming into the cafe shouting that nothing happened at Mid Staffordshire, that I am lying and that there were no unnecessary deaths. ‘My cafe is in ruins. It is taking in about £40 or £50 a day. They are boycotting me. I will be gone by the end of the summer. I can’t stay here any longer.’ Miss Bailey has previously told how the campaign saw her use up all her savings, endure abusive emails and receive telephone threats. Revealing the source of her determination, she said: ‘It was too late to save Mum – but I could save others by launching a David-versus-Goliath battle to change the NHS.’
Overrun nurses and doctors were too busy to see 37,000 emergencies quickly .
'The Government has tried to blame everybody else for this chaos' says Labour .
Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt claimed .
A&E units were swamped because GPs had handed out-of-hours services .
to unreliable private firms .
By . Daily Mail Reporter . PUBLISHED: . 09:31 EST, 26 May 2013 . | . UPDATED: . 03:31 EST, 27 May 2013 . Up to 100 patients a day are being forced to wait more than an hour in ambulances outside overstretched A&E units. More than 37,000 people needing urgent treatment were held in so-called ambulance ‘jams’ last year – with delays of up to four hours recorded at some hospitals. The latest number is more than double the 14,580 who waited to be admitted in 2010-11, despite official guidelines that say patients should be handed over to medical staff within 15 minutes of arrival. Waiting: In thousands of cases, ambulances are having to queue up outside hospitals with patients inside their vehicles because A&E units are too busy . Even the number of those stuck in ambulances for 30 minutes have increased – from 99,661 three years ago to 193,088 last year. The delays in treatment come as many A&E departments are struggling to cope with a surge in patient numbers. Chaos in out-of-hours care and the . botched launch of the Government’s 111 non-emergency number have also . been accused of pushing many hospitals to breaking point. Earlier this year, staff at Norfolk . and Norwich University Hospital’s emergency unit were so stretched they . erected a tent in a car park to act as a makeshift ward. And in a leaked letter last week, 20 senior A&E doctors warned they could no longer guarantee safe care for patients. Jamie Reed, Labour’s health spokesman, said hospitals had reached ‘crisis point’. Closures: The devastating impact of casualties shutting across the nation . Delays: The ambulance service faces millions of pounds in fines if patients cannot be delivered to A&E units . ‘The collapse of social care, which . means older people cannot be discharged back home, the failure of the . new 111 helpline service, more than 4,000 nurses cut since the General . Election and walk-in centre closures are all piling pressure onto . A&E departments,’ he said. ‘The result is patients waiting . longer for treatment, being left on trolleys and unable to be . transferred to wards because the beds are occupied. Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt: He blames GPs for passing out of hours cases to unreliable private firms . ‘David Cameron is taking the NHS . backwards, with ambulances queuing outside A&E and one hospital even . having to erect a tent to receive patients.’ Last week, NHS Confederation boss . Mike Farrar also said emergency care was in a ‘state of crisis’ and . called for patients to be able to email their GP instead of going to see . them. However, Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt . has blamed the problem on GPs giving up responsibility for out-of-hours . care and allowing care to be provided by unreliable private firms. The number of patients who waited . longer than four hours in A&E has almost tripled in four years, from . 344,772 in 2009-10 to 888,289 last year, NHS figures reveal. Casualty units have been told to . treat 95 per cent of patients within four hours, but almost a third of . trusts failed to meet the target. An NHS England spokesman said: ‘While . more than 90 per cent of A&E patients are seen within this time, . waiting an average of 53 minutes, a high number of patients are still . waiting longer than we would want. ‘There is no single cause or factor . that can explain longer waits in A&E departments and issues vary . from hospital to hospital.’ A Department of Health spokesman said . the NHS is ‘coping well’ after the number of casualty patients rose by a . million in three years. ‘Patients shouldn’t face excessive . waits for treatment and we expect NHS England to take action to address . ambulance handover times, including fining trusts when there are delays . of 30 minutes or more,’ he said. Julie Bailey is fleeing the town where she was born . The campaigner who helped expose one of the country’s worst NHS disasters has been hounded out of her home town. Julie Bailey, pictured, set up Cure the NHS when her mother Bella died in 2007 after appalling standards of care. Miss Bailey, 51, called for an investigation into the Mid Staffordshire Hospitals NHS trust. Her campaign led to the inquiry which revealed that up to 1,200 patients had died needlessly. However, the cafe owner has now received a series of threats. Many have unfairly blamed her for the uncertainty surrounding the future of the local hospital – one of the area’s biggest employers. And residents have started to boycott her cafe. As a result, she has now decided she has no option but to leave the town where she  was born. She said: ‘People have been coming into the cafe shouting that nothing happened at Mid Staffordshire, that I am lying and that there were no unnecessary deaths. ‘My cafe is in ruins. It is taking in about £40 or £50 a day. They are boycotting me. I will be gone by the end of the summer. I can’t stay here any longer.’ Miss Bailey has previously told how the campaign saw her use up all her savings, endure abusive emails and receive telephone threats. Revealing the source of her determination, she said: ‘It was too late to save Mum – but I could save others by launching a David-versus-Goliath battle to change the NHS.’
because A&E units are too busy . Even the number GPs for passing out of hours cases to unreliable see . them. However, Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt responsibility for out-of-hours . care and private firms. The number of patients who waited