The HSE’s National Ambulance Service (NAS) has acknowledged that falling short of response time targets means some patients may be left waiting over two hours for an emergency response, reports RTE.
A briefing prepared for today’s Joint Committee on Health shows that the HSE West and North West, along with the HSE Mid West, were the poorest performing areas last year.
The national standard is to reach 75% of life-threatening cardiac or respiratory arrest calls (known as Purple calls), and 45% of life-threatening illness or injury calls (Red calls), in under 19 minutes, reports RTE.
In the West and North West, only 64% of Purple calls and 45% of Red calls were attended within the target time.
For the Mid West, 69% of Purple calls and 46% of Red calls met the response target.
The HSE said it is working to reduce the longest average waiting time for ambulances from two hours down to one, as part of a three to five year strategic plan, reports RTE.
Last year, the NAS handled 430,000 emergency calls — a 10% rise compared to the previous year.
The HSE also outlined ambulance turnaround times at emergency departments, which currently average 45 minutes.
It aims for 80% of ambulance handovers to be completed within 20 minutes of arrival, and noted that responsibility lies with the individual acute hospitals, reports RTE.
In June this year, the target was met in 57% of all cases.
Fianna Fáil TD Martin Daly told the committee he was aware of incidents where ambulance turnaround had taken as long as four to five hours.
Sinn Féin’s Health Spokesperson David Cullinane said he was concerned that patients could be left waiting over two hours for an ambulance to arrive, reports RTE.
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