Over 64,000 ambulances tied up for over an hour outside congested emergency departments last year

Chief executive of Lifeline Ambulance Service, David Hall, said having ambulances tied up outside emergency departments is inhumane. Picture: Larry Cummins

Over 64,000 ambulances spent over an hour at a hospital last year before offloading a patient and getting back on the road.

It represents nearly one in every four ambulances that arrived at hospitals.

Turnaround times involve the interval between an ambulance's arrival at a hospital to when the crew has handed over a patient and is ready to take another call.

The target time is less than 30 minutes but on 64,182 occasions last year, the turnaround time was over an hour.

That is almost 23% of all ambulances that went to hospitals throughout the country last year.

According to Freedom of Information figures, the turnaround time was over five hours in 165 cases.

Putting patients at risk

Chief executive of Lifeline Ambulance Service, David Hall, said having ambulances tied up outside emergency departments is inhumane. It puts patients at risk and is very bad for staff.

He said the reason for the delays is due to overcrowding in emergency departments.

"Emergency departments have been neglected by the health service, the Department of Health, and the HSE," Mr Hall said.

"Their staff are overworked, they are underpaid and there is immense pressure and stress where everybody who has an emergency — of all varying shapes and sizes — present themselves to an emergency department who require treatment, triage, and the expertise that is there."

In 2019 and 2020, over 20,000 fewer ambulances had turnaround times of over an hour.

The HSE says during the Covid pandemic, the National Ambulance Service experienced longer offload delays at emergency departments due to infection prevention and control measures.