AQO 1435/22-27

Mrs Deborah Erskine
Democratic Unionist Party
Fermanagh and South Tyrone

Tabled Date: 16/01/2025
Answered On Date: 27/01/2025
Priority Written: No

Question:
To ask the Minister of Health for his assessment of ambulance waiting times within the Western Health and Social Care Trust.

Answer:

Reducing ambulance handover delays at EDs remains a key priority due to the impact this has on NIAS’s capacity to respond to calls in the community, particularly Category 1 and Category 2 emergency calls.

Handovers between the ambulance service and ED should take place within 15 minutes. For the Western HSC Trust, only 5.8% of handovers were completed in under 15 minutes in Q3 2024/25. This was below the regional performance of 6.3%. For patients arriving at Western Trust EDs by ambulance, 8.2% of arrivals waited more than 2 hours before being transferred into the hospital.

At the South West Acute Hospital (SWAH) 8% of handovers were completed in under 15 minutes and 88 patients waited more than 2 hours in Q3 2024/25.

To reduce long waits outside EDs and release ambulances more quickly, a 3-hour ambulance handover backstop was introduced in December 2022 and amended to a 2-hour backstop in February 2023.

I have also asked that all HSC Trusts work in collaboration with NIAS to develop new pathways as alternatives to conveying patients to the Emergency Department.

My Department provided funding to Western HSC Trust to open a Minor Injuries Unit at Altnagelvin hospital in March 2024 and the Western Trust Phone First service was established in January 2021, providing clinical triage for patients seeking urgent care services. Between April and November 2024 there were over 15,000 calls to the service, of which 35% were directed to attend ED, 41% were directed to the Minor Injuries Unit and 24% were given advice for self-care or directed to their own GP or other service.

Ambulance handover delays are monitored on a daily basis, including average delays and longest delays at each hospital. This information is circulated widely within the HSC system including to the Trust Chief Executives.