A regional ambulance service is growing increasingly concerned about worsening patient handover delays outside some hospitals.

Officials told a meeting of the West Midlands Ambulance Service board that the situation in some hospitals has been 'deteriorating' which is increasing the risk of patients being harmed.

Aidan Brown, WMAS service transformation and patient safety director told a meeting this week that: "Many of us were hopeful, optimistic that things were starting to improve towards the end of the last financial year.

"But we are just as bad if not worse than then.

"Patient harm is undoubtedly happening as a result of it."

The board noted however that The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH) has shown a "sustained improvement" in its handover performance.

WMAS serves a population of six-million people across Shropshire, Herefordshire, Worcestershire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, Coventry, Birmingham and the Black Country. There are some 17 full emergency departments in the area.

Figures shown to a board meeting on Wednesday (October 28, 2026) revealed that in September alone ambulances lost 32,810 hours (3.7 years) sitting outside hospitals in the region with patients in the back.

Only 28.5 per cent of handovers were completed within 15 minutes while 22.7 per cent exceeded one hour.

Six months before, in April, 2026, the figure for lost hours was 20,194 lost hours (2.3 years).

The board was told that the deteriorating trend is "still there". They have agreed to increase the 'risk rating' of the issue and carry out more research into what the can do to improve the situation.

Chiefs heard that hospital handover delays have "deteriorated significantly since June 2026, reaching levels only previously exceeded during the 2022 system pressures".

2022 was the worst recorded year for hospital handover delays.

In the first six months of 2026/27 WMAS staff have 'lost' 159,461 operational hours (18.2 years) in hospital handover delays.

Chiefs were hopeful of getting delays down to 83,288 hours (9.5 years). Board board papers noted that delays so far this year are 76,173 hours (8.7 years) worst than that target.

Chiefs were told that the winter is "likely to see significant further deterioration."

A report adds that "despite assurances" from other parts of the NHS "there has been no sustained improvement".

A board member told his colleagues that he had ridden incognito in an ambulance and found that at one unnamed hospital, staff were putting 'pressure' on paramedics to keep a patient in the back of an ambulance.

Committee reports also recorded discussions over risks to paramedics from keeping patients with mental health and violence issues in ambulances.

The board was told that chief executive Anthony Marsh has written to NHS leaders of "significant concerns" as "no provider" is planning to hit the national maximum 45 minute ambulance handover target.

Despite having ambulances delayed outside hospitals WMAS has recorded 'strong' improvements in the time its crews take to respond to 'category two' calls that are not immediately life-threatening.

National guidance is looking for 18 minute responses to category two calls with WMAS getting there in an average of 24 minutes 29 seconds. It had planned by this time in the year to get to those patients in 27 minutes 58 seconds.

Response times to category one calls are much faster.