MLA seeks more ambulance cash

MLA seeks more ambulance cash

30 November 2016

HEALTH Minister Michelle O’Neill has been asked to make additional funding available to the Ambulance Service to allow the organisation to expand its fleet and improve response times.

South Down MLA Colin McGrath said issues with regard to response times indicate the need for additional ambulances to be made available to meet increasing demand.

He said a recent response from Ms O’Neill to an Assembly question has highlighted what he described as the “unacceptable wait times” that ambulances are subjected to at the Ulster Hospital in Dundonald.

Mr McGrath said in Northern Ireland last year, the Health Department’s own target of a 15 minute turnaround for ambulances was missed 140,000 times with a one-hour waiting time breached 8,000 times, 1,700 of these at the Ulster Hospital.

The MLA said the figures also revealed that ambulance staff had to wait over two hours with staff on 127 occasions at the Ulster.

“This is clearly unacceptable and highlights the problem there is with patient flow at the Ulster Hospital,” said Mr McGrath. “Having ambulances waiting outside emergency departments means they are not available to cover our area and I fear that this is putting patient safety at risk. 

“How many times do we hear of elderly folk lying on the ground injured waiting over an hour on an ambulance?”

The South Down MLA has urged the Health Minister that if she is unable to “sort out the mess” of patient flow through emergency departments, to consider pumping additional funds into the Ambulance Service to ensure when ambulances are tied up at hospitals, there is adequate cover on the ground. 

Mr McGrath added: “I fear it is only a matter of time before we hear of a patient death due to these delays and there must be action before, not after, such an event.”

A spokesperson for the health minister’s department was unavailable for comment.