EXCLUSIVE: 163 ambulances dispatched in Louth to non-cardiac life-threatening emergencies in 2022 took over an hour

As many as 163 ambulances dispatched to non-cardiac life-threatening emergencies in Louth in 2022, took longer than one hour to get to a patient, shocking new figures have revealed.

The figures are almost four times the number of calls which took longer than an hour to respond to in 2021 (41).

National Ambulance Service guidelines state that an ambulance should aim to arrive at the scene of an emergency non-cardiac incident within 19 minutes.

However, 163 patients were forced to wait longer than an hour for an ambulance to arrive last year, according to information released to the Dundalk Democrat under the Freedom of Information Act. 

The longest wait time for a non-cardiac life threatening incident in Louth in 2022 was four hours and 50 minutes, with ‘Volume of Work’ given as the reason for the lengthy delay.

Life threatening calls are split into two categories: Delta/Red (non- cardiac or respiratory arrest life threatening calls) and Echo/purple (life threatening calls relating to cardiac or respiratory arrest).

In total, 111 Delta ambulance calls were logged as taking over one hour to arrive at their destination due to the ‘Volume of Work’;  37 were delayed due to ‘Distance Involved’; ‘Other’ was logged as the reason for delay in eight calls;  while four cases which took over an hour  were logged as ‘Slow Crew Mobilisation’; with  two further delays logged as ‘Difficulty Finding Location’; and the remaining case logged as ‘Slow rate of Response By Crew.’

Overall, the figures for Louth show:

• 62 people experienced a response time in excess of 60 minutes and less than 75 minutes.
• 40 experienced a response time in excess of 75 minutes and less than 90 minutes.
• 17 experienced a response time in excess of 90 minutes and less than 105 minutes.
• 13 experienced a response time in excess of 105 minutes and less than two hours.
• 31 experienced a response time in excess of two hours.

Nationally, Echo and Delta calls account for approximately 48% of all 999 emergency calls in 2022.

All Echo calls (life threatening calls relating to cardiac or respiratory arrest) in Louth last year were responded to within an hour.

Asked to comment on the above figures, the HSE released a statement to the Democrat stating:

“Every day, the National Ambulance Service deploys approximately 160-180 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.

“In 2022, NAS received over 366,000 112 or 999 calls. The overall NAS fleet - which consists of Critical Care Ambulances, Emergency Ambulances, Intermediate Care Vehicles, Rapid Response Vehicles and a range of specialised support vehicles - travelled in excess of 24 million kilometres.

“Demand via the 999 service has increased by 14% since 2019.

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“To ensure those patients with life threatening or potentially life threatening illness or injury receive the fastest response, all 999 calls are clinically triaged.

“National aggregate response times targets for these calls are set out in the HSE’s National Service Plan each year and are described as ECHO (life threatening cardiac or respiratory arrest) or DELTA (life threatening illness or injury, other than cardiac arrest). These calls account for approximately 48% of all 999 calls.

“There were no adverse events reported as a consequence of any delays to these calls when the response time exceeded 60 minutes in Co Louth during 2022, when surges in demand for services were experienced as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“In addition to response time targets NAS also uses Clinical Key Performance Indicators to better measure patient outcomes rather than time-based targets alone which have limited clinical relevance.

“The NAS operates on a national basis and mobilises responses to calls for assistance based on patient needs, ambulances may travel to and be dispatched from various locations irrespective of their base as they are not confined to work in geographical areas.

“The deployment model is designed around international best practice and has eliminated previous practices where the nearest ambulance was not always dispatched due to former legacy boundaries.”