Debate contribution: Ambulance Waiting Times

Debate contribution by Mr Timothy Gaston on 13 January 2025.

MLA

Mr Timothy Gaston

Party at the time

Traditional Unionist Voice

Date

13 January 2025

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

Ambulance Waiting Times

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4738595

Read the official Assembly record

Text

As we have heard several times this afternoon, this is not a new problem. It should therefore not be blamed entirely on the current Health Minister. As far back as 2016, my predecessor in the House, Jim Allister, tabled questions that revealed that, in just one month, January 2016, there were no fewer than 20 occasions when an ambulance's downtime at Craigavon Area Hospital exceeded two hours. This afternoon, I will touch on why speed from our Ambulance Service and from hospitals generally is so essential. That fact was particularly brought home to me by a briefing from the Stroke Association that, I suspect, all Members received ahead of the debate. Stroke continues to be one of the biggest killers in Northern Ireland and is a leading cause of adult disability. We have the second-highest incidence of stroke in the UK and the second-highest mortality rate. Most pertinent to the debate was the fact that, according to the latest stroke stats, it took 13 hours and 15 minutes for a stroke patient to arrive at a stroke unit following the start of their symptoms. That is an increase from the same period in the previous year, when it took 10 hours and three minutes. Only 61% of stroke patients are scanned within one hour of arriving at hospital. In most part, that is due to a backlog of people at our A&Es. With a stroke, every minute is vital. I take the opportunity to relate to the House something of a personal experience. Shortly before Christmas, my party chairman, Cusher councillor Keith Ratcliffe, had a suspected mini-stroke. It was later confirmed to be a transient aphasia. He waited 13 hours before approaching the desk to enquire about his situation, only to be informed that there was just one full-time doctor available that evening for emergencies. Keith was eventually seen 26 hours after arriving at the hospital. He could not speak more highly of the stroke clinic for its efficiency, but his experience in A&E left him deeply concerned about the state of the health service. One of the major issues causing the pressures on A&E that night in Craigavon was the number of people who were there as a result of alcohol abuse, many of whom were in A&E every weekend, according to hospital staff and the police officers who were present that day. Let us not kid ourselves that the issues with alcohol arise only when people arrive in A&E. Alcohol abuse also contributes to the pressures on the Ambulance Service, yet, in 2021, when the Assembly was voting to liberalise the licensing laws, where was every Member of the House, with the exception of Jim Allister and Jim Wells? They were voting to approve such a move. Members did so in spite of evidence from the Public Health Agency that was presented to the Committee considering the Bill. Mr Meehan of the PHA told MLAs:

"there will be an inevitable correlation between later closing times and presentations at accident and emergency".

They did so in spite of evidence from Professor Fitzgerald of the University of Stirling, who told MLAs:

"In Norway, studies found that, for every extra one-hour extension to opening times, you get a 16% increase in police-reported assaults at night-time and that, if you reduce those opening hours, you get an exactly converse 16% reduction in those assaults. There is therefore a really clear link in both directions between late-night opening hours and police-reported assaults."

Alcohol consumption seriously increases the risk of developing a stroke. There needs to be a holistic approach to the health service. There is an onus on us all to think about the impact that we, as legislators, have on the pressures on the vital service on which we all rely, and I am not convinced that that has been the case in the House to date.

645 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 11:43 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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