Calls for urgent funding as ambulance waiting times grow

The average wait time in two southern counties for an ambulance responding to life-threatening incidents has increased by eight minutes to 26 minutes. Picture: Dan Linehan

People are waiting longer for ambulances now than they were three years ago, with the average wait in one region up to almost half an hour, new figures show.

Since 2019, the average wait time in two southern counties for an ambulance responding to life-threatening incidents has increased by eight minutes to 26, and increased by seven minutes to 28 in several counties in the South East.

The wait times are now almost 10 minutes longer than the HSE’s own target of 18 minutes and 59 seconds or less for so-called echo and delta calls — life-threatening calls, including cardiac or respiratory arrest incidents.

The average wait time is seven minutes beyond that target in the South and nine minutes beyond it in the South East.

The figures prompted calls for urgent government action, including investment in the ambulance fleet.

The trend towards longer wait times is revealed in a response to a parliamentary question tabled by Cork North-Central Sinn Féin TD, Thomas Gould, who sought details in relation to the data in specific parts of Cork City.

In his response, William Merriman, the deputy director of the National Ambulance Service (NAS) said all NAS resources are dispatched to calls across the country from the National Emergency Operations Centre (NECO) on a ‘nearest available to incident’ basis and not on a county boundary basis.

He said the NAS is divided into three operational divisions or regions — North Leinster, West, and South. The South is subdivided into the South East counties — Carlow, Kilkenny, Tipperary (south), Waterford, and Wexford — and southern counties, Cork and Kerry.

His response showed that from January 2019 to December 2021, the average response times for category one echo and delta calls increased in southern counties from 18 minutes in 2019 to 26 minutes in 2021.

In the South East, the average response time for the same type of calls jumped from 21 minutes in 2019 to 28 minutes in 2021.

Mr Merriman said the level of demand for NAS services is growing every year.  

"Every day, NAS deploys approximately 160 to 180 emergency ambulances, an average of 22 rapid response vehicles and in excess of 50 officer response vehicles operating from over 100 locations around the country,” he said.

Mr Gould said it was worrying to see ambulance response times in Cork and Kerry increasing by over 30% since 2019.

“People are now waiting, on average, almost 30 minutes for an ambulance,” he said. “The majority of people calling an ambulance are in serious, critical situations.

Waiting an additional seven minutes could have lifelong consequences for people and the reality is they simply cannot wait. 

He added: “People are telling us they are waiting much longer than the average 28 minutes — with people being left for hours at a time waiting for an ambulance.

“I’m talking to staff in the ambulance services who are at the end of their tether — the levels of stress and burnout they’re experiencing needs to be recognised.”

He called for funding to expand the ambulance fleet and ensure that rural communities are properly served.