SEVERAL ‘surges’ in ambulance attendances in January caused added pressure to the accident and emergency department at Royal Blackburn Teching Hospital.
Hospital board members heard there had been multiple occasions when 10 or more ambulances arrived at casualty in an hour.
On six occasions, five ambulances arrived at the A&E in just five minutes.
Ambulance handovers taking more than 30 minutes topped 1,400. The national target is 15 minutes.
Operations director John Bannister said the number of A&E attendances, at 14,342, had not risen significantly in January.
But the increasing number of complex cases arriving at the ward had caused an effect on discharge rates.
The delayed discharge rate had risen from 5.1 per cent to 5.8 per cent of cases.
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