MEDICS who failed to properly use an electronic device has led to excessive handover delays of patients brought in by ambulance to hospitals in Bristol, a hospital forum has been told.

Bristol Royal Infirmary (BRI) and Frenchay Hospital have historically had lengthy handover times between ambulance crews and A&E staff.

And the problem still persists, a joint scrutiny meeting of Great Western Ambulance Service was told on Friday.

The Bristol hospitals are the worst for handovers taking more than 45 minutes, compared with other hospitals in the region.

BRI saw 5.9 per cent of patients take more than 45 minutes to be handed over, while at Frenchay it was eight per cent of patients, against a GWAS average of 4.8 per cent.

Delays of more than 45 minutes at Great Western Hospital, Swindon, were 1.6 per cent, while the figures for Royal United Hospital, Bath and Salisbury District Hospital were 0.1 per cent.

The figures are for 2011/12.

Claire Thompson, divisional manager of medicine at BRI, told the meeting, at Swindon Borough Council’s offices: “We started to create a process to deliver a 15-minute handover by using an electronic handover screen.

“We thought this would show a significant improvement. We are really disappointed it hasn’t.

“We will need to refocus our effort and have more training of our staff and GWAS staff to make sure it’s being adhered to rigorously.”

The same electronic screen is used at Frenchay.

Both BRI and Frenchay said they had seen a decrease in patients with minor injuries but were seeing more seriously ill patients.