Debate contribution: Waiting Lists: Effect on Winter Preparedness

Debate contribution by Mr Timothy Gaston on 20 January 2026.

MLA

Mr Timothy Gaston

Party at the time

Traditional Unionist Voice

Date

20 January 2026

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

Waiting Lists: Effect on Winter Preparedness

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5348452

Read the official Assembly record

Text

When I come to the Chamber and raise specific issues, it is often because members of the public have asked me to raise those issues on their behalf. The Health Department has been by far the most frustrating Department for me during my 19 months in office. It is disappointing that, on many occasions, I have had to send constituents recordings of what has taken place in the Chamber or extracts from Hansard and tell them that I raised the issue but the Minister, in his summing-up, simply ignored the points that I had made. Similarly, when it comes to questions for written answer, the Minister knows that some of my questions have been sitting with his Department for nine months but should have been answered within 10 days. I submitted a freedom of information request to ask when he received the draft answers to those and other questions, and I was told in a response that I received just last week that the Department is in such a state of chaos that it cannot even tell me when the Minister received those draft answers. It is not political theatre, Mr Chambers; it is the reality that MLAs face in this place. It is no surprise that patients face the same chaos when they try to get medical care. When Mr Donnelly proposed the motion, he said that he was speaking on behalf of patients on waiting lists, patients on trolleys and patients waiting in A&E departments or in ambulances. I want to give a voice to the families who have dialled 999 to call an ambulance and have waited with anxiety in their house. Often, when the ambulance comes, it can be too late. I think today of the Darragh family. Willy Darragh sadly passed away in December 2024 after having chest pains in his home. His wife rang 999 only to be advised that the quickest way that she could get her husband to A&E was to take him in the car. Sadly, Mr Darragh never made it to hospital: he took a heart attack in a lay-by on his way there. In April 2025, the Ambulance Service confirmed that an ambulance was, indeed, sitting in the Ballymena depot but that, due to being within the last hour of shift, the crew could not be assigned. As Willy Darragh was classed as a category 2 case, that crew could not be assigned, because of action short of strike. Let that sink in. Recently, I asked a narrow operational question about whether crews are at least being made aware that a category 2 call has been logged within the last hour of their shift. Instead of addressing the issue, the response was a vague, waffly answer about winter plans, flu trends and hospital discharge pressures. It did not say a word about ambulance call-handling procedures, notification protocols, industrial action constraints or whether any system change had been made to alert crews that a category 2 call is sitting waiting. Nine months on, it appears that no progress has been made and that no lessons have been learnt. The Minister may be on notice, but he is in his place today. I trust that he will give the Assembly a clear and direct answer about whether any progress has been made on that critical and crucial issue. What measures are now in place to ensure that ambulance crews are informed when emergency calls are logged but not responded to? Not everyone is in the union. A policy of not advising crews that a category 2 call has come in has been fatal in the past and, if the situation is not addressed —

— will prove fatal again. I am happy to give way.

The Member makes a good point. If staff are told a category 2 call has come in — for example, a man with chest pains who has a history of heart problems — I have no doubt that the crew will go out, but the problem is that the crew is not being told that such a call has come in. That is a failing, and it is something that should have been put right nine months ago. I believe that it still has not been put right today. I ask the Health Minister to tell us — I will even allow him an intervention — whether he has put that right. It should be addressed today and not months in the future. As I said, the policy has been fatal in the past, and it will be fatal again if we do not get it right. Last week, the Member for Upper Bann Diane Dodds raised directly with the Minister the deeply troubling stats on emergency and critical calls. She told the House that she had received a message that the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service was about to call a critical state and that there were 160 emergency and critical calls from those waiting for ambulances that could not be answered. Minister, it is time for you to get a grip on the issue. It is time for you to sort it out once and for all. Our constituents deserve better than they are getting. It is not the fault of the Ambulance Service. It is not the fault of the crews.

There is something wrong with the policy, and that needs to be addressed today.

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

Assessment

Not flagged

Jev’s structured answers

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 14:13 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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