Mr Patsy McGlone (Mid Ulster): To ask the Minister of Health to detail the average waiting time for an emergency ambulance response in Mid Ulster, in each of the last five years.
Minister of Health: Ambulance call categorisation for emergency calls is standardised across the UK. For your information, ambulance call category definitions and response time standards are set out in Table 1 below.
Table 1
| Call Type | Category | Mean Standard |
| Immediately life threatening | Cat 1 | 8 Mins |
| 999 Emergency – potentially serious incidents | Cat 2 | 18 Mins |
| Urgent problem | Cat 3 | *120 Mins |
| Non- emergency ED visits | Cat 4 | *180 Mins |
*This is the 90th centile standard for category 3 and category 4 calls as there is not a mean standard
Table 2 below shows the mean response times across categories 1-4 for the Mid-Ulster area, for the period January 2020 to August 2025.
Table 2
| Year | Category 1 | Category 2 | Category 3 | Category 4 |
| 2020 Mean | 0:13:07 | 0:24:19 | 0:54:19 | 1:39:10 |
| 2021 Mean | 0:13:48 | 0:32:39 | 1:15:00 | 2:05:15 |
| 2022 Mean | 0:14:54 | 0:39:25 | 1:31:06 | 2:31:18 |
| 2023 Mean | 0:14:19 | 0:42:21 | 1:56:03 | 3:01:21 |
| 2024 Mean | 0:15:27 | 0:58:51 | 2:17:55 | 1:54:43 |
| 2025 Mean | 0:15:42 | 1:05:18 | 2:15:42 | 1:14:08 |
| Overall Mean | 0:14:40 | 0:43:03 | 1:34:31 | 1:52:51 |
The impact on patient outcomes of appropriate and timely ambulance responses for every call received was recognised in the Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT) Review of Emergency Medicine.
Ambulance handover delays at emergency departments (EDs) impact on the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service’s (NIAS) ability to respond to emergency calls in the community. Improving ambulance handover times is a key priority for my department. Earlier this year, departmental officials, alongside clinicians from the Trusts and NIAS, visited a hospital in London to learn from their approach to releasing ambulances more quickly. Following that visit, the Trusts and NIAS were asked to adopt a similar model.
At a regional workshop in August 2025, the Permanent Secretary, supported by the Chief Medical Officer and Chief Nursing Officer, endorsed the implementation of regional ambulance handover guidance aimed at eliminating handovers exceeding two hours by 1 December 2025. Achieving the 15-minute handover standard remains a longer-term objective.
This is a system-wide challenge, and my department is committed to leading the co-ordinated action required to deliver these improvements.
In addition, my department is working with NIAS to ensure sufficient ambulance and staffing capacity to meet Category 1 and Category 2 response time standards through the development of a 10-year workforce and financial plan.
ENDS
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