Ambulance times are ‘disturbing’

Worrying figures have been provided in a reply to Mrs Kelly’s question to the Minister of Health Robin Swann on the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service response times in Upper Bann over the last 24 months and how many target times have been missed.

“The figures provided are disturbing,” said Mrs Kelly. “Over 64% of life threatening calls missed the eight-minute target from January 2018 and November 2019. In the last month of last year, the average time taken to respond to a call was more than two minutes over the target.

“There is a serious and recurring challenge with ambulance cover across the Southern Area based on increasing demand and diminishing resources.

“Deep-seated issues including the recruitment and training of new staff need to be addressed as a matter of utmost urgency.

“Our hardworking NHS staff deliver the best care that they can, but they too are feeling the strain of a lack of resources about their inability to get to their call-outs on times. This isn’t good enough for either service users or staff.

“We need to see an urgent action plan that will deliver the best possible care to local people.

“I will be raising this with the Minister as a matter of urgency.”