Patients to benefit from new ambulance hubs and discharge lounges
The facilities will help cut urgent and emergency care waiting times for tens of thousands of patients across the country
- Six new ambulance hubs will increase efficiency – cutting out unnecessary delays and getting ambulances back on the road faster, ensuring they can reach people as quickly as possible
- 42 discharge lounges are freeing up hospital beds, providing a more comfortable environment for patients who are about to return home
- Backed by nearly £50 million in investment as part of plans to improve urgent and emergency care performance and cut waiting lists, one of the government’s top five priorities
Six new ambulance hubs and 42 new and upgraded discharge lounges are opening at hospitals across the country, which will help cut urgent and emergency care waiting times for tens of thousands of patients.
The new facilities are backed by the £50 million investment that was announced by the Health and Social Care Secretary Steve Barclay in January to help free up hospital beds and cut down on waiting times for patients ahead of next winter.
In certain areas, ambulance queues to hand patients over to hospital care can be made worse due to a lack of physical space. The ambulance hubs will increase efficiency– cutting out unnecessary delays and getting ambulances back on the road faster, ensuring they can reach people as quickly as possible.
Four of the new hubs – located at the Princess Royal Hospital in Telford Shropshire, the Leicester Royal Infirmary, the James Cook Hospital in Middlesbrough, and the Doncaster Royal – are already live and providing additional urgent and emergency care capacity. Two further hubs will come into use this summer at the Queen’s Hospital in Romford, east London, and the Glenfield Hospital in Leicester.
Feedback from Trusts suggests that 1,000 patients have already benefitted from the ambulance hubs so far. The Doncaster Royal has met national targets for ambulance handovers every day since its hub opened, while the Leicester Royal Infirmary has reported an 86% reduction in hours lost to delays since November 2022.
Health and Social Care Secretary Steve Barclay said:
These new ambulance hubs and discharge lounges are another example of how we’re investing to cut waiting times – one of the government’s top five priorities. They are already benefitting tens of thousands of patients by freeing up beds and reducing the time for patients waiting to be admitted from A&E.
The hubs will allow ambulances to manoeuvre more quickly and cut out unnecessary delays, and the lounges will free up hospital beds, while offering patients a more comfortable environment to recover in while they’re waiting to leave hospital. All of this is to ensure we can bring down waiting times and prepare for next winter.
Health Minister Lord Markham said:
Waiting times have already substantially reduced from the peak of winter pressures – but we know there is more to do, and we are investing record funding in health and care services to reduce waiting times and improve patient care.
These new ambulance hubs will help free up ambulance crews to get back on the road more quickly and respond to emergencies, while expanded and upgraded discharge lounges will help free up hospital beds and cut A&E waiting times.
NHSE National Director of Integrated Urgent and Emergency Care and NHSE Deputy Chief Operating Officer, Sarah-Jane Marsh, said:
The hard work of health and social care teams across the country has meant we have seen improvements in ambulance response times and A&E performance since December, despite the impact of seasonal viruses, industrial action, and higher than usual bed occupancy.
These dedicated spaces, alongside the range of actions we have outlined in our urgent and emergency care recovery plan, including thousands of new beds, hundreds of new ambulances and measures to help treat more people in the community, will help us further improve patient experience and help avoid unnecessary hospital admissions ahead of next winter.
Patients who are due to be discharged that day but are waiting for medication or transportation will benefit from the discharge lounges – helping to free up beds and reduce waits for patients waiting to be admitted from A&E. These dedicated rooms will provide 439 additional beds, 364 chairs, and 44 extra trolleys in hospitals, freeing up capacity up across the country.
The discharge lounges are improving patient experience by creating more space in hospitals, offering a comfortable environment with TVs, hot meals and discharge lounge nurses to attend to people’s needs while they are waiting – with 26 already open.
Backed by more than £360,000 in funding, Northwick Park Hospital in north west London upgraded its lounge with six new beds and 10 chairs – improving flow through the hospital and impacting nearly 2,500 patients. The Hull Royal Infirmary received £300,000 in funding to convert its discharge lounge and provide an additional 52 beds, and nearly 1,500 patients have already used the facilities.
Earlier this year, the government and NHS published an Urgent and Emergency Recovery Care Plan to achieve one of the fastest and longest sustained improvements in emergency waiting times in the NHS’ history. Frontline capacity will be boosted with 800 new ambulances, including 100 specialist mental health vehicles, and 5,000 more sustainable hospital beds backed by a £1 billion dedicated fund.
The NHS successfully met the first target in its Elective Recovery Plan to virtually eliminate waits of over two years and has cut 18 month waits by over 91% from the peak in September 2021.
There are already record numbers of people working in the NHS overall, and the NHS will shortly publish a long term workforce plan setting out plans to recruit and retain more staff. All of this is backed by up to £14.1 billion for health and social care over the next two years, on top of record funding.
Notes to editors
- More information on the Urgent and Emergency Care Plan can be found here: https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/delivery-plan-for-recovering-urgent-and-emergency-care-services/
- The £50 million was announced in January alongside £200 million to buy short-term care placements to allow people to be discharged safely from hospitals into the community. Up to £250 million to speed up hospital discharge - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
- The list of the Trusts and the funding they are receiving for the discharge lounges is below.
- The list of the hospitals and the funding they are receiving for the ambulance hubs is below.
| Site | Region | Units | Cost |
| University Hospitals Leicester - LRI | Midlands | 2 | £2.1m |
| University Hospitals Leicester - Glenfield | Midlands | 2 | £2.1m |
| Princess Royal, Telford | Midlands | 1 | £1.2m |
| Queen’s Hospital, Romford | London | 1 | £1.1m |
| University Hospital South Tees | North East | 2 | £2.2m |
| Doncaster Hospital | North East | 1 | £160,000 |
- The list of discharge-related projects and the funding received is below
| East Suffolk & North East Essex FT | Colchester | 135,000 |
| Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust | Princess Alexandra Hospital | 300,000 |
| East Suffolk & North East Essex FT | Ipswich | 640,000 |
| Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust | Hillingdon General Hospital | 38,760 |
| London North West NHS Trust | Ealing | 40,000 |
| Barts Health NHS Trust | Whipps Cross | 300,000 |
| London North West NHS Trust | Northwick Park | 363,585 |
| Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust | Royal Free site | 550,000 |
| Barts Health NHS Trust | Royal London | 785,000 |
| Chelsea and Westminster NHS FT | West Middlesex | 1,000,000 |
| Sherwood Forest Hospitals Trust | Newark site | 70,000 |
| Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust | Princess Royal Hospital | 114,000 |
| University Hospitals Birmingham Trust | Good Hope Hospital | 180,435 |
| Northampton General Hospital Trust | Northampton General Hospital | 300,000 |
| Doncaster and Bassetlaw Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust | Bassetlaw District General Hospital | 333,000 |
| University Hospitals Birmingham Trust | Birmingham Heartlands Hospital | 760,870 |
| Nottingham University Hospitals | Queens Medical Centre Site | 1,250,000 |
| Nottingham University Hospitals | City site | 1,250,000 |
| University Hospitals Leicester Trust | Leicester General Hospital | 1,500,000 |
| Sherwood Forest Hospitals Trust | Kings Mill Hospital | 1,500,000 |
| Kettering General Hospital NHS Foundation Trust | Kettering General Hospital | 3,000,000 |
| York & Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust | York Hospital | 21,600 |
| Mid Yorkshire Hospital Trust | Dewsbury Hospital | 35,000 |
| Northern Lincolnshire & Goole NHS Foundation Trust | Scunthorpe site | 50,000 |
| Northern Lincolnshire & Goole NHS Foundation Trust | Grimsby site | 62,500 |
| Harrogate & District NHS Foundation Trust | Harrogate District Hospital | 90,000 |
| Doncaster and Bassetlaw Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust | Doncaster Royal Infirmary | 150,000 |
| York & Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust | York Hospital | 240,000 |
| Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust | Hull Royal Infirmary | 300,000 |
| Northumbria Healthcare Trust | The Northumbria Hospital, Cramlington | 1,440,000 |
| Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust | Hull Royal Site | 3,500,000 |
| Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS FT | Mansfield | 84,000 |
| Frimley Health Foundation Trust | Wexham Park Hospital, Slough | 150,000 |
| East Kent University Hospitals Trust | Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother Hospital | 150,000 |
| East Kent University Hospitals Trust | Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother Hospital | 185,000 |
| Dartford and Gravesham NHS Trust | Darent Valley | 240,000 |
| Frimley Health Foundation Trust | Frimley Park Hospital, Frimley | 350,000 |
| Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust | Queen Alexandra Hospital | 450,000 |
| East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust | Eastbourne District General Hospital | 650,000 |
| University Hospitals Dorset NHS Foundation Trust | Royal Bournemouth Hospital, | 100,000 |
| Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust | Salisbury Hospital | 500,000 |
| Dorset County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust | Dorset County Hospital | 2,000,000 |
| Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust | Barnstaple DGH | 2,000,000 |
| University Hospitals Dorset NHS Foundation Trust | Care Home Bed Commissioning at three sites for out of hospital care | 2,421,000 |
| University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust | Clearbrook Manor Nursing Home (External site purchase to be used for out of hospital care) | 3,000,000 |
| University Hospitals Dorset NHS Foundation Trust | Care Home Bed Commissioning at three sites for out of hospital care | 2,421,000 |
| University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust | Mount Gould Hospital | 5,000,000 |
- There were also five supporting projects (with no additional lounge or other patient capacity) at the following sites:
| Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust | Salisbury Hospital | 46,000 |
| Harrogate & District NHS Foundation Trust | Harrogate District Hospital | 185,000 |
| South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust | Derriford Hospital, Plymouth | 258,084 |
| University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust | GP Streaming Cabin, Derriford | 250,000 |
| Whittington Health NHS Trust | Whittington Hospital | 35,000 |
- A small number of projects have been unable to fully deploy funding (totalling £2.9m) and we exploring options.