Life Saving Ambulance Response Times In Mid Ulster at 46%
Time Period : June - November 2011
Ambulance response times hit a all time low in Mid Ulster, only 46% (236) of life saving calls to the Ambulance Service were responded to within the Ministerial target of 8 minutes, more worrying is that 76 patients waited over 21 minutes for the ambulance to respond to their emergency.
21 minutes is the rural target for non-life saving calls in rural areas, category A, B & C calls seen 347 patients wait over the target for a response from the ambulance service.
In addition the FOI went on to show the longest times for an overall call to hand over at hospital from Mid Ulster patient :
- In November 2011 it took an overall time of 3 hours and 12 minutes for a patient who had a cardiac history and suffering from chest pains from Mid Ulster to the Craigavon Hospital, taking a staggering 1 hour 55 minutes for the ambulance service to hand the patient over. Despite this patient having a cardiac history the call was only classed as a category B.
Given that we have just seen a health review it is disgraceful that this review, which says it is centred around people, does not recognise massive failures like these response times. To remove an A&E and expect the ambulance to fill that gap was never going to work. Would a MLA or Health Manager have to wait this long?
The danger of longer hand over times is that for that period of time that ambulance that is supposed to cover Mid Ulster is parked at the Hospital, the capacity issues that has already put the A&E's in crisis is now putting the Ambulance services in crisis also.
Hugh McCloy
Save The Mid
Tel:07871503189
email; [email protected]