THE average time it takes Yorkshire Ambulance Service to hand over patients to Barnsley Hospital has been slashed over the last 12 months - but the town’s residents still face the longest wait in South Yorkshire.
A new system was launched across Yorkshire to reduce the waiting times, a report has revealed.
The hand over time between April 2024 and March 2025 was 21 minutes and 53 seconds, but after the new scheme was launched it dropped to just 18 minutes and 22 seconds between April and November this year.
However, this is the longest wait time in South Yorkshire, with the trust previously boasting the second-fastest in the region.
A report, which will be discussed by councillors in the new year, states: “The national standard for patient handovers at emergency departments is 15 minutes.
“Pressures across the health and social care system contribute to the hospital hand over delays, and it remains a trust priority to minimise these delays, given the impact this has on the availability of emergency ambulances and on patient care.
“Significant progress has been made in reducing hand over delays across Yorkshire, with the introduction of the ‘transfer of care’ operating procedure (also known as W45).
“This is a structured, safe, and timely process for transferring patient care from YAS staff to acute trust colleagues.
“This has been developed to ensure patient hand over takes place within a maximum of 45 minutes and helps to support timely patient hand overs, which in turn supports rapid ambulance turnaround and preserves emergency response capacity.
“The overarching aim is to reduce the risk to patients waiting for a 999 response in our communities, therefore improving response times and maximising patient safety and experience.
“The average hand over time across the five hospitals between April to end of November is 19 minutes 27 seconds and this average hand over time has improved significantly compared to the previous year, where the average time for the same period was 29 minutes 15 seconds.
“Nationally, in November 2025 average hand over time at hospitals for all English ambulance services was 30 minutes and 11 seconds.”
Danielle Jefferies, senior analyst at The King’s Fund, said ambulance hand over delays ‘reflect pressures on the wider system’, and warned of the risks they represent for patients.
She said: “It’s a real safety risk for a lot of patients, particularly those on the back of ambulances as they could be some of the sickest patients we have in the system.
“So, for them to be waiting 30 minutes, hours or even longer, is a real safety concern and probably quite scary as well.”
An NHS spokesperson said there is ‘clearly much more still to do to reduce unacceptably long waits for patients in some areas of the country’.
They added: “With increased demand and high bed occupancy in hospitals having a huge impact on hand over times, NHS teams across the country are prioritising the sickest patients and doing all they can to prevent avoidable admissions.”
