05/06/2014 Look North (North East and Cumbria)

This week on Look North, we've been asking why so many people

in the North East who dial 999 have to wait so long for an ambulance.

Tonight, a claim that scores of incidents may be down to problems

With this exclusive story, here's our health reporter Sharon Barbour.

Look North has learned ambulances are being held up, sometimes for

hours, at the accident and emergency units .

Last year, between April and September,

over 10,500 delays were recorded by paramedics handing over their

For the paramedics, it means they off the road,

trapped in queues, unable to respond to stacking 999 calls.

They are waiting for us to clear at hospital after stacking up. It is

frustrating. We learned the majority occurred at a fuel hospitals and

based at the University Hospital of North Durham. `` at a few hospitals.

We put an ambulance liaison officer at crucial times into the emergency

department to help with the handover of patients. We have seen documents

that show hundreds of patients who may have been kept waiting outside

accident and emergency sentence `` centres have the paramedics not

driven them to another hospital. Most patients were diverted away

from the University Hospital of North Dharamsala. Here are some of

the reasons `` of North Durham. At this time it is closed to all but

life`threatening cases. Orthopaedic and gynaecological patients cannot

be taken on one day. On the 13th, the hospital has to divert A

patients. The list goes on and on. It shows problems with paramedics

taking patients to a major accident and emergency centre. At best this

might cause inconvenience and cause delays in the system. But, at worst,

could it be putting lives at risk? Earlier tonight, we put those points

to Professor Chris Gray, medical director of the Health

Trust responsible for North Durham. It is unacceptable and we have two

fix it and we have plans to do that. We have invested ?5 million in

additional front`line staff and support services to make it happen.

We need to do more. What we intend to do is increase the capacity of

the emergency department and increase the size of that using

existing resources. The Deputy Prime Minister says

a new ?100 million factory in Washington is evidence

of a manufacturing revival Investment in the hi`tech

Rolls Royce plant, which makes parts for aircraft,

has secured hundreds of jobs. Here's our political correspondent,

Richard Moss. You know there must be good economic

news about when not one but two economic big beasts turn up your

factory. It has secured hundreds of jobs making parts for aircraft all

over the world. It is perhaps not surprising politicians want to

associate themselves with this success. The question is, is the

north`east economy any closer to lift off? You are seeing the

marriage of fine traditions of the north`east, of manufacturing and

designing and making things and exporting, and marrying Brad to

world beating, cutting`edge new technology and skills. We have it

here `` marrying that. We can build on that which would be part of a

rebirth of manufacturing in the north`east. Labour said success

stories like this are too few and far between. Even the Business

Secretary admits. Of course, we could do more and we want to do

more, but there is no magic Woolwich. `` no magic bullet.

All front`line police officers in Durham are to be equipped with

The force thinks it may be the first in the country to give

It's argued the use of cameras has helped bring

criminals to justice more quickly, and improved standards of policing.

A Teesside man has this evening been describing the moment he

was bitten by a 7ft snake, which then wrapped itself around him.

Police and paramedics were called to Andrew Williams' home

in Middlesbrough, after he was attacked by his Burmese python.

Andrew Williams says he's been keeping snakes

like this boa constrictor for years, without any problems.

But this afternoon, as he was trying to feed his Burmese

python, it bit him and then coiled itself around him.

I was panicking. This is a seven foot python. It was the most

frightening thing I have seen. This is where Crusher,

the 7ft python used to live. But now the snake's been

taken away by the RSPCA. I went to feed it and it bit me. It

wrapped itself around my arm. I had to stop it moving by stamping on its

head. It was hissing. Andrew has been left with

a few marks on his hand. But despite being bitten, having a

7ftsnake wrapped around him and been visited by the emergency services,

the police and paramedics. This hasn't, he says,

put him off keeping snakes. I am not sure how I follow that but

I will hand you over to our snaked hipped weatherman. Tomorrow looks

like a fine and dry day. Any early mist will clear quickly. There will

be patchy cloud around but most will see sunny spells into the afternoon.

It will feel warmer. Temperatures easily up to the teams. `` teens.

There will be showery outbreaks of rain in the outlook. We will

high as 24 degrees. Looking forward to the weekend, thundery showers. As

you will have seen, I cannot promise you sunshine and blue skies, but I

can promise warm. Warmer conditions will be growing up. The heat at the

moment is across parts of Spain and south-west