Ambulances taking 10 minutes longer to reach at-risk patients in ‘blackspots’

Patients in critical conditions were left waiting longer last year as the number of Echo call (life-threatening cardiac or respiratory arrest) ambulances meeting the target time of 18 minutes and 59 seconds to reach people with suspected cardiac or respiratory distress plunged in December.

Just 59pc of ambulances met the target in the west and 61pc in the south, followed by 70pc both in north Leinster and in Dublin.

Dublin Fire Brigade was the worst performer in December with less than one in five Delta call (life-threatening non-cardiac or non-respiratory arrest) ambulances carrying patients in other life-threatening situations meeting the target.

It fell to 28pc in the south, 33pc in north Leinsters, and 36pc in the west. The figures, obtained by Sinn Féin TD David Cullinane of the Oireachtas Health Committee, came as yesterday’s meeting heard ambulance delays are harming patients.

The committee heard how some areas of the country, such as Connemara, parts of Sligo and the south east, are among regions suffering due to ambulance delays.

Dr Cathal O’Donnell, medical director of the National Ambulance Service, told the committee: “I think there has unquestionably been harm due to ambulance delays.”

He was responding to questions from Fine Gael senator Martin Conway who also asked if delays were linked to deaths.

“I am not aware of fatalities – they would end up on my desk,” Dr O’Donnell said.

Robert Morton, head of the HSE’s National Ambulance Service, said figures for 2022 reflect the gap between demand and capacity. Echo call response times show just 72pc of ambulances responded in 18 minutes and 59 seconds. Delta calls had a response of 41pc in 18 minutes and 59 seconds.

The chief fire officer of Dublin Fire Brigade, Dennis Keeley, said last year the average turnaround time in Dublin hospitals was 39 minutes, with 16pc of incidents having a turnaround time in excess of 60 minutes.

“It should be noted that in 2020, the comparable average turnaround time was 29 minutes, with 6pc of ambulances experiencing off-load delays in excess of 60 minutes.”

It comes against a background of a lack of resources and the need for more than 1,000 staff “straight away” in the national ambulance service. A number of initiatives are underway to secure more staff while new ways of treating people at home or outside of hospital are being rolled out.

There is evidence that more people are also bypassing their GPs and calling an ambulance.

Fire engines, with a paramedic and life saving equipment had to be deployed by Dublin Fire Brigade around 3,000 times last year due to a lack of an ambulance which is not the best care of patients.

Meanwhile, inspectors who visited Tallaght Hospital in Dublin last year found a patient waiting more than twenty hours to be seen by a doctor and patients on trolleys for over two days.

Inspectors from the Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa) also found gross overcrowding in University Hospital Kerry which patients waiting for a bed for nearly four days.

Staffing shortages and lack of oversight of emergency consultants out of hours was also found.