AMBULANCES are still queuing “almost every day” outside Southend Hospital after a handover unit designed to reduce delays was taken down, a councillor has claimed.

Southend Hospital’s ambulance handover unit opened at the beginning of November.

The £250,000 unit created 12 extra bed spaces to allow ambulance crews to drop patients off and return to the road in an attempt to cut down excessively long delays.

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However, the unit was quietly shut down at the end of January, after the Mid and South Essex (MSE) NHS Trust - which runs Southend Hospital - reconfigured the emergency department, making space for seven more beds.

Westborough ward Labour councillor Aston Line has criticised the closure, stating he believes the unit is still needed to meet demand at the hospital.

“I pass the hospital on my daily jog and most days there are several ambulances stationed in front waiting to let patients off,” Mr Line said.

“Fast forward to just three months later and we find that the quarter of a million-pound PR stunt has been quietly dismantled.

“The public money that has been wasted on this ridiculous three-month project, could have paid for four senior doctors to work in our A&E Department for over a year. Which do residents think would have had more of an impact on our wait times?”

The units have been dismantled even though, in the last week of February, 43 per cent of patients arriving at MSE hospitals waited at least half an hour to be transferred to A&E - way above the national average of 26 per cent.

A joint statement from EEAST and Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust “The Ambulance Handover Unit was put in place to deal with immediate winter pressures, with the expectation that this was a short-term and temporary solution to help us cope with demand.

“The expansion of Southend’s majors capacity in late January, where seven extra cubicles became available, meant we were able to see more people inside the hospital.

“The ambulance handover units have now been removed as planned. We are now beginning work to remodel and expand Southend’s Emergency Department, following national funding, to create permanent extra capacity."