Our Ambulance Receiving Centre (ARC), run in partnership with the London Ambulance Service, has been recognised for how it’s helping to reduce delays in ambulance handovers at Queen’s Hospital.

The ARC, which was first launched in November 2021, featured in Sunday’s Observer newspaper, which witnessed the partnership work that’s giving patients a better experience in the Emergency Department (ED).

The aim of the ARC is to reduce time taken for paramedic to hand patients over to our ED staff, so patients spend less time waiting in ambulances and LAS crews can get back on the road to help others in need. It has already seen almost 2,000 patients and saved nearly 13,000 hours of paramedics’ time since opening.

Paramedics and ED staff work side by side in the ARC to give patients the best experience possible. Paramedics who are not currently on ambulance shifts help staff it, allowing their colleagues to get straight back onto the road.

While we still have a long way to go, it has already seen the number of patients waiting an hour to be handed over go from 27.4 per cent in February, to 19.4 per cent in May. This is despite the number of ambulances going up from 1,529 to 1,788 over the same period.

You can read the Observer story on the website.

Pictured above are consultant paramedic Chris Martin with patient Makhan Singh (credit Andy Hall/The Observer).