AMBULANCE crews were this morning told not to go to Oxford's John Radcliffe Hospital accident and emergency department and to divert to Banbury's Horton General Hospital.

The Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust has yet to say why ambulances have been told not to go to its main Oxford hospital but to head to the Horton 23 miles away.

On Wednesday we revealed what were branded as "unacceptable" delays at the John Radcliffe for patients taken there in ambulances last year.

There were 117 cases where it took more than an hour for ambulance crews to ‘hand over’ patients.

And in one case in April 2013, a patient waited for two hours and 28 minutes to get into the hospital.

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While those figures aren’t just related to accident & emergency admissions, there are concerns that A&E teams are struggling to take on patients brought in by ambulance crews. This in turn means response times could be affected.

There is a 15-minute A&E limit demanded by national NHS bosses.

Figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show 21,596 JR transfers were within 15 minutes, with 7,197 from 15 to 30 minutes, 937 from 30 minutes to an hour, and 117 over an hour.

Oxford East Labour MP Andrew Smith warned those with long waits were “suffering unacceptable inconvenience and delay, which cannot be good for their medical treatment”.

He added: “This also shows the pressure frontline staff are working under in our local health services.”

Hospital managers said A&E demand was rising and staff were “exceptionally busy”. They said handover times had improved, but did not give figures.

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