More than 6k life-threatening ambulance calls in Cork and Kerry not responded to within target time 

A total of 6,356 ambulance calls for life-threatening illness or injury across Cork and Kerry between June and November 2024 were not responded to within the set target time.

Under the HSE National Ambulance Service (NAS) system, around 48% of calls are categorised as either purple (life-threatening cardiac or respiratory arrest) or red (life-threatening illness or injury, other than cardiac arrest). 

A target of responding within 19 minutes in 75% of cases is set for purple calls, and in 45% of cases for red calls.

Data released to Sinn Féin TD for Cork North Central Thomas Gould showed that 52% of red and purple ambulance calls in Cork over the six-month period took longer than this target — 140 purple calls, or 27.8% of the total they responded to, and 6,216 or 53.4% of red calls.

“I am extremely concerned by these figures,” Mr Gould told The Echo.

“Just before Christmas, I was contacted by a man whose son was left lying on a cold, wet sports pitch for three hours, leaving him with increased swelling and pain.

“I am extremely concerned that there are people now with lifechanging conditions, or even worse, grieving, because of these delays.”

Ambulances responded to 66% of the purple calls within the target time in June, 72% of them in July, 77% in August, 69% in September, and 74% in both October and November.

For red calls, the response times were 45% on time in June and August, 42% in July, 44% in September, 46% in October, and 56% in November.

“Now, we see that the NAS met their target of 75% of purple calls responded to in less than 19 minutes on just one of the six-month periods,” said Mr Gould.

“These are the most serious calls. They are often life or death.

“That is not the fault of the ambulance staff, who are doing their very best in difficult conditions. This is a direct result of underfunding and failure to invest in our ambulance services by successive Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael governments.

“Over six months, more than 6,000 life-threatening, or potentially life-threatening calls, were not responded to in the targeted 19 minutes,” he said.

“That is 6,000 people left in awful circumstances across Cork and Kerry.

“We know that some of these were for extended periods of time.

“That is 250 people and families a week left sitting waiting on ambulances.

“These are people stuck lying on cold, wet streets or deteriorating rapidly in front of their loved one’s eyes.

A spokesperson for NAS said: “NAS operates a dynamic model of ambulance deployment.

“This is in line with international best practice and allows the NAS to prioritise resource allocation to the highest acuity calls that require an immediate emergency response.

“This does mean that at particularly busy periods, lower acuity calls will be liable to experience a longer wait for an ambulance. This has become more of a challenge in recent years with the continuous growth in activity volume.”

Mr Gould was also critical of the fact that data he had requested on the number of hours spent waiting at hospitals for capacity to discharge patients from ambulances, and the number of times an ambulance travelled further than 50km to respond to an incident, was not available.

The HSE said: “Since January 2024, NAS no longer report on the total hours a resource is waiting at hospital.

“The distance travelled by a resource is not a KPI for the NAS, therefore is not reported on.”

Mr Gould said: “It is very worrying that the HSE do not collect data on hospital turnaround times or distance travelled by ambulance.

“The next minister for health must recommence collection of that data.”