PATIENTS waiting in ambulance queues outside accident and emergency departments across the south have increased, according to the Labour Party.
A Labour Freedom of Information (FoI) request submitted to ambulance trusts nationwide found there has been a seven-fold increase in the number of patients who waited over two hours in ambulances outside A&E departments in the South Central Ambulance Trust area.
Figures show the number of people waiting more than two hours increased from 141 patients in 2010/11, to 518 in 2011/12, to 974 in 2012/13.
The number of patients who waited longer than half an hour to be transferred from an ambulance into A&E has also increased.
In 2010/11, 3,164 people waited 30 minutes or more, and that figure increased to 13,582 in 2012/13. The figures show waits of more than an hour in an ambulance rose to 3,765 in 2012/13 from 820 in 2010/2011. However, there were no specific figures for ambulance queue figures at hospitals in Hampshire.
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