‘Over 64% of life threatening NI Ambulance Service calls missed the 8-minute target’ says MLA

More than 64% of life threatening Ambulance calls missed the eight minute target, according to figures obtained by the SDLP.
Dolores KellyDolores Kelly
Dolores Kelly

MLA Dolores Kelly described the statistics received via a question to the NI Assembly’s Minister of Health Robin Swann, as ‘disturbing’.

The MLA had asked for the NI Ambulance Service’s response times in Upper Bann over the last two years and how many times the target had been missed.

She said: “The figures provided are disturbing.

“Over 64% of life threatening calls missed the 8-minute target from January 2018 and November 2018. In the last month of last year, the average time taken to respond to a call was more than two minutes over the target.

“There is a serious and recurring challenge with ambulance cover across the Southern area based on increasing demand and diminishing resources.

“Deep-seated issues including the recruitment and training of new staff need to be addressed as a matter of utmost urgency.

“Our hardworking NHS staff deliver the best care that they can, but they too are feeling the strain of a lack of resources about their inability to get to their call-outs on times. This isn’t good enough for either service users or staff.

“We need to see an urgent action plan that will deliver the best possible care to local people. I will be raising this with the Minister as a matter of urgency.”

In reply to a question from Upper Bann MLA Dolores Kelly, the Health Minister provided the following information:

From 1 January 2018 to 11 November 2019 the response time target was that an average of 72.5% of Category A (life threatening) calls should be responded to within 8 minutes. In Upper Bann during this period a total of 7,053 calls were prioritised as Category A. Of these, 4,545 calls missed the 8-minute target. A total of 35.6% of responses to Upper Bann met the 8-minute target.

From 12 November 2019 to 31 December 2019 NIAS aims to respond to Category 1 calls in an average time of 8 minutes and at least 9 out of 10 times within 15 minutes. During this period there were a total of 97 Category 1 calls in Upper Bann. In Upper Bann the average time for category 1 responses was 10:31 minutes, with 9 out of 10 responded to in 16:05 minutes.

Health Minister Robin Swann said: “NIAS has advised that the introduction of the new code set on 12 November 2019 will improve response times to immediately life threating calls.

“I appreciate the hard work and commitment of NIAS staff, who are facing increasing demands on their services and challenges in achieving targets, but I also recognise that the status quo is not satisfactory.

“However, a considerable amount of work has, and is, being done to improve this situation.

“A new Clinical Response Model (CRM), which completed public consultation in January 2019, has been developed following an extensive demand and capacity review. NIAS is currently developing detailed plans for the implementation of the new CRM, which will require significant investment in staff and resources.”

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