54 A&E turnarounds took over 45mins

FIFTY-FOUR ambulance turnarounds at Altnagelvin took more than 45 minutes during February, it has emerged.

By The Newsroom

Published 5th Apr 2012, 19:11 BST

The ambulance downtime refers to the turnaround time measured from when an ambulance arrives at an A&E department until it has ‘cleared’ the location, the Health Minister has revealed.

This included patient handover to relevant clinical personnel and making the vehicle ready for the next call.

A minority (54 of a total of 1,171) turnarounds took more than 45 minutes.

One hundred and forty five took over 30 minutes; 612 took over 15 minutes and 360 took less than 15 minutes.

Health Minister Edwin Poots gave the details at the Stormont Assembly.