AMBULANCE handover times at Abergaveny's Nevill Hall Hospital have been boosted by the start of a pilot scheme to provide more nursing care for patients on arrival.

Since January last year, when handover times at A&E departments began to improve following the demands of an exceptional winter, the Royal Gwent has consistently outperformed Nevill Hall.

But for the last three months, as handover times have again improved after the winter, Nevill Hall has caught up and for the last two months has recorded slightly better handover results.

The important measure however, is that both hospitals are currently achieving close to 70 per cent of handovers - the standard set by the Welsh Government - inside the 15-minute target.

Improving handover times is vital to help maintain speedier responses by ambulances out on the road, to emergency calls.

Often, crews have been delayed in A&E departtments by an hour and more. These so-called 'lost' crew hours have not been exclusive to Gwent, but the problem has been more acute in this area than in others.

The Nevill Hall pilot scheme focuses nursing care so crews do not have to stay longer than they need to, and can leave more quickly when the patient is transferred from the ambulance trolley.

Handover times at the Royal Gwent similarly improved last year when the Welsh Ambulance Services NHS Trust employed a liaison nurse in A&E to look after up to five patients at a time, so crews could get back on the road.

Better handover times have played a part in improved emergency ambulance times. The latter have been consistently higher in Gwent in the last couple of years, and health bosses believe there is scope for more improvement both at handover, and getting to the patient in the first place.