MORE than two-fifths of emergency cases rushed to the Ulster Hospital wind up stuck in an ambulance for two or more hours, unable to get into the building.
During the first four full months that the hospital’s multi million-pound new Emergency Department was up and running, a total of 2,246 people spent more than two hours in an ambulance waiting for medical staff to offload them.
That’s 43% of the total number of emergency cases rushed to the hospital by ambulance from October last year to January this year.
A further 2,132 patients were handed over in less than an hour and 818 people were handed over to medical staff in one to two hours.
Government targets say that no patients rushed in by ambulance should have to wait more than 15 minutes to be taken through the doors of an Emergency Department.
The new statistics were revealed in the Assembly, when North Down MLA Alex Easton quizzed Health Minister Robin Swann over the issue.
Calling for the Minister to bring in special measures to sort out the problem, Mr Easton went on to blame health officials for the situation – alleging that the Ulster’s new A&E is too small to cope with demand put on it and arguing controversial closures of Minor Injuries Units (MIUs) in Bangor and Newtownards made matters worse.
Local NHS Trust bosses deny that, insisting that the Emergency Department has ‘adequate capacity’ and an improved MIU in the Ulster is easing pressure, while blaming bed-blocking and an aging population for ‘overcrowding’ in A&Es all over Northern Ireland.
But Mr Easton maintains the South Eastern Health Trust should shoulder blame for what he described as ‘truly horrifying’ and ‘unacceptable’ numbers of patients stuck waiting in ambulances outside the hospital doors.
“The reality is the new Emergency Department was built far too small and can’t cope,” he insisted. “It is actually smaller in size than the previous A&E, leading to the ambulance waiting situation becoming worse.
“The closures of the Ards and Bangor MIUs has exacerbated the problem, as I predicted and warned, while the fact GPs are asking patients to go straight up to the Emergency Department is also not helping.
“Patients using the Ulster deserve better – nobody should be waiting for hours in an ambulance to be treated, this needs to change.”
Mr Easton went on to call for urgent action ‘above the heads of the Trust senior management’ to tackle the problem, arguing that emergency measures are now justified.
“Patients should not have to wait for hours in an ambulance, which in turn cannot be redeployed as it is forced to wait on site for hours,” said the independent Unionist.
“My heart goes out to the doctors and nurses, ambulance staff and patients who have been placed in this impossible situation and are suffering as a result.
“The Health Minister needs to step in and take urgent action to address this crisis at the Ulster Hospital’s A&E unit.”
