Ambulance system broken and crumbling, says group

Just one in four ambulances is meeting turnaround targets, leaving thousands of patients waiting to be transferred to hospitals.

Ambulances had to wait more than an hour to transfer patients on 1,431 occasions during February, figures released by the HSE reveal.

This had a knock-on effect on other services as it meant ambulances were then delayed in getting back out to respond to calls as they had to wait to get their trolleys back.