Northern Ireland ambulances queuing outside EDs as patients wait hours to be seen

Patients across Northern Ireland are currently waiting up to nine hours on an ambulance as crews queue outside Emergency Departments waiting to handover patients.

There are 49 emergency crews on duty, but as of 3pm, 41 crews are queuing outside hospitals across Northern Ireland. Currently patients requiring an ambulance are facing a wait time of up to nine hours.

As of 3pm on Saturday, the Emergency Department at Antrim Area Hospital had the highest average wait time to be seen at 7 hours and 20 minutes while the wait time at the Royal Children's Hospital was just 34 minutes.

Waiting times at emergency departments can change quickly without warning and the figures published on NI Direct lists average waiting times of patients in the previous four-hour period. These times cannot be guaranteed and you may need to wait longer than the time shown.

Table showing the average wait time at each ED in Northern Ireland on Saturday afternoon.

In a statement to Belfast Live, spokesperson for the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service said: "The Northern Ireland Ambulance Service is experiencing severe challenges as a result of the pressures being felt across the HSC system today.

"Although it is an ever changing picture, there were, at 15:00, 41 ambulance crews queued outside EDs waiting to handover patients. The longest wait, currently, sits at over 9 hours.

"NIAS has 49 Emergency Crews on duty today, supplemented by 13 Rapid Response paramedics operating between 08:00 and 20:00. A further 10 RRV paramedics are rostered for duty from 15:00.

"Further support has been provided by the Independent and Voluntary ambulance sectors. These crews will deal with lower acuity calls, thereby keeping NIAS crews available for more serious emergencies.

"Delayed turnarounds at hospitals impact on NIAS capability to respond to life threatening emergencies in the community and we continue to work closely with EDs to release crews at the earliest opportunity."

The spokesperson said that all calls received by NIAS are subject to triage to ensure that those who are sickest, receive our quickest response.

"This will unfortunately mean delays for patients waiting with less urgent conditions and NIAS would apologise to those patients who find themselves in this situation," they continued.

"We would ask the public to consider other alternatives to calling 999, such as seeking advice from GP out-of- hours, advice from pharmacist, or self presentation at hospitals if absolutely necessary.

"We would also ask those who are waiting for an ambulance, not to call back as this can impact on the capability of our control room staff to answer calls, more serious in nature.

"NIAS also has a number of Paramedics in the control room who may call patients back to establish the most appropriate action to meet their needs, which may include non attendance at hospital.

"We appreciate and ask for continued patience of the public as they wait for an ambulance response. We are doing what we can to improve the situation."

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