Hoax ambulance calls flood South Tyrone

Health Minister Michelle O’Neill has revealed that – across the North – callers had hung up almost 9,000 times before their calls were answered.

It also emerged that the NI Ambulance Service had missed its eight-minute target to arrive at the scene of life-threatening calls, in both of the last two years.

Meanwhile, it has also emerged that Health Minister Michelle O’Neill has spent just over £5,000 on a private office with no full-time staff at South Tyrone Hospital.

The details were revealed at the Northern Ireland Assembly after a question by UUP MLA Rosemary Barton.

Ms O’Neill took up the health ministry in May, after having previously held the Agriculture and Rural Development portfolio.

The office is classed as a ‘Ministerial Private Office’ and will be sited in one of the former nurses quarters of South Tyrone Hospital.

A Department of Health spokesperson confirmed that the office will be used on an “ad hoc basis according to the Minister’s diary commitments”.

“No staff will work on a full time basis in my private office in South Tyrone Hospital,” said the minister in response to a further question on the office.

“My private secretary and I will use the office as a base when I am conducting Ministerial business in the surrounding area.”

The information was released in response to an assembly question from UUP MLA Rosemary Barton.