Northern Trust chief reports improvement in ambulance turnaround times
The Northern Health and Social Care Trust has reported an average ambulance “turnaround” time at Antrim Hospital of 74 minutes during April and 82 minutes at Causeway Hospital, Coleraine.
The same month, 250 patient arrivals by ambulance required more than two hours to be transferred to the care of Antrim Hospital. There were 100 patients in a similar position at Causeway.
The figures were presented in the Trust Board Performance Report for April 2026 during last week’s meeting of the Northern Health and Social Care Trust board at Causeway Hospital.
The Trust’s interim chief executive Suzanne Pullins said that there has “undoubtedly” been an improvement.
“Ambulance turnaround times have been an area of focus for a very long time, she stated.
By comparison, in December of last year, 436 patients had a wait of more than two hours to be transferred to Antrim Hospital following arrival by ambulance. There were 150 patients in a similar position at Causeway Hospital.
During April, 70 per cent of hand-overs occurred within 60 minutes at Antrim Hospital and 60 per cent at Causeway Hospital.
At Antrim Hospital, that month, 7.9 per cent took place within 15 minutes and 5.9 per cent within 15 minutes at Causeway Hospital.
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A report on “ambulance hand-overs” in Northern Ireland in March 2025 by the Northern Ireland Audit Office states that “timely ambulance hand-overs require appropriate capacity and resources throughout the hospital, including in EDs and adequate care capacity within the community to enable timely patient discharges”.
In the emergency department (ED) at Antrim Hospital, 30.5 per cent of patients were treated within four hours during April and 46.9 per cent within four hours at Causeway Hospital.
The same month, at Antrim Hospital, 1,959 patients in ED at Antrim Hospital had a wait of more than 12 hours and 695 at Causeway.
At noon, on Thursday June 4, there were 95 patients waiting in the ED department at Antrim Hospital, of which 55 had been waiting for more than 12 hours. There were 43 in ED at Causeway Hospital, of which 33 had been waiting more than 12 hours.
On the same day, 57 patients at Antrim Hospital were waiting for admission to a hospital bed and 28 at Causeway.