Number of ambulances required for southern area only available three times in eight months
DUP Health Spokesperson and Upper Bann Assembly Member Diane Dodds MLA has told the Assembly that the expected number of ambulances for Saturday nights was only available in the Southern area three times in an eight month period:
“Our ambulance service has been really stretched particularly over the Christmas and New Year period. We have seen the number of ambulances queuing outside Craigavon and other hospitals, and patients taken unwell in their own homes have had long waits for ambulances to arrive.
"In 2024 between January and August the Southern Division's target of having 10 ambulances available on Saturdays was met only three times, and the Northern region's target of having 12 ambulances available was met only once.
"A lot of what we are experiencing today is not new. It is repeated over and over again. Last May, Health Minister responded to a Question I had asked in the Assembly stating, "Reducing ambulance handover delays outside emergency departments has been a key priority". He described trusts being required to develop plans with "specific actions to improve ambulance handover times, including the introduction of additional alternative care pathways as alternatives to conveying patients to the Emergency Department.
"As part of the winter planning arrangements, he indicated that ambulance handover information would be made available to the public fortnightly via the departmental website. I have hunted high and low on the Department’s website but cannot find any figures. Bringing transparency to the issue is really important. I am also interested in the number of ambulance hours that were lost over the Christmas and New Year period as a result of staff being delayed at emergency departments.
"We know that demand has been increasing year on year, but the number of staffed ambulances has not risen. That results in a failure to keep pace with increased calls and rising demand, and places additional pressure on staff who have become overstretched and are struggling. They have few rest periods and cannot finish their shifts on time.
"I was at Craigavon Hospital last Thursday on a visit, and was told it was cold, uncomfortable and difficult for patients waiting on beds. We know that the answer to that is patient flow, and it is really important that we get to grips with that. In March last year, 628 patients who were medically fit to leave hospital were unable to do so.
"About 500 were unable to leave hospital last weekend. Unless we get to grips with social care, we will continue to have the problems that we currently have in hospitals. It is not new: it is happening over and over again. We really need to get to grips with the problem. If we can increase patient flow, we will ensure that our patients are treated in EDs with dignity, not in corridors and on trolleys."