headline: Shrewsbury hospital rolls out ambulance delay scheme
text: A scheme aiming to cut ambulance waiting times has launched at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital.
  me of the longest delays in the region, tying up ambulances outside A&E and preventing staff from responding to 999 calls.
  Shrewsbury's Ambulance Decision Area allow paramedics to care for patients while they wait to be handed over to hospital staff.
  It means other ambulance crews can get back on the road.
  West Midlands Ambulance Service (WMAS) has already trialled the scheme at three Birmingham hospitals and said it had seen a "significant impact".
  Another decision area is also set to open soon at Telford's Princess Royal Hospital.
  Across the West Midlands in September 2019, the service lost a total of 6,259 hours through ambulances being stuck at hospitals waiting to hand over patients,  a report revealed.
  In September 2022, the equivalent figure was 36,750 hours.
  Following a trial of the initiative at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Good Hope Hospital and Heartlands Hospital, WMAS was approached by the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital Trust in October to set up the scheme at its two sites.
  "This is another example of the two organisations doing everything possible to reduce handover delays, which ultimately, will benefit patients," a WMAS spokesperson said.
  "We have worked incredibly hard with Shrewsbury and Telford Hospitals to get the scheme up and running as quickly as possible after the funding was identified."
  Ambulance Decision Areas are also staffed by healthcare assistants with extra training.
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