Crisis hit A&Es shut their doors 500 times to desperately-ill patients amid winter crisis, shock report claims

CRISIS-hit A&E units shut their doors almost 500 times to desperately-ill patients this winter, a damning report reveals.

The record number of closures is twice as many than in previous years.

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And five hospital trusts were responsible for half of ambulance diverts – where overwhelmed casualty units send 999 patients to neighbouring hospitals.

These were Pennine Acute Hospitals, Northumbria Healthcare, County Durham and Darlington and South Tyneside.

The findings were revealed by the Nuffield Trust think-tank.

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Its report shows there were 493 ambulance diverts in place at A&E departments between December to February.

This compares to an average of 249 times over the same period in the previous three years.

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Experts warn the A&E crisis is also dragging down 999 response times.

NHS rules state 75 per cent of ambulance calls classed as “life threatening” should receive help within eight minutes.

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But the target has not been met since May 2015.

Simon Stevens, the head of the NHS, last week promised greater investment in A&E to boost performance.

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Prof John Appleby, Nuffield Trust Chief Economist, said: “What our research has uncovered is the huge increase in the number of times this winter ambulance trusts have been told that they must take patients to another hospital altogether, because an A&E unit simply doesn’t have the capacity to accept any more patients.”

And he warned the pressure on services was affecting staff morale.

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He added: “Managers in the NHS and politicians need to make improving the ambulance service’s poor morale and its ability to meet targets an urgent priority”.

Richard Webber, national spokesman for the College of Paramedics, said closing A&Es is a “double whammy” – with 999 crews taking longer to reach hospital and delaying them reaching the next call.

He said: “While we are sympathetic to hospitals that are forced to implement diverts so that they don’t reach dangerous levels of overcrowding, in non-urban areas in particular the extra time taken to reach more distant A&E departments is significant.”