Ambulance wait deaths in Northern Ireland treble in five years

THE number of people who have died while waiting for an ambulance in Northern Ireland has trebled in five years.

Since 2020/2021 a total of 149 people have died waiting at home for emergency response help.

New figures show there were 50 deaths last year - which is a marked increase on the 16 fatalities recorded five years previously.

The shocking statistics emerged in response to a written question from SDLP health spokesperson Colin McGrath to the health minister.

Co Antrim woman accused of stealing almost £30K in Lotto scratch cards

Armagh man ‘voluntarily presents’ himself to PSNI for questioning over alleged incident during All-Ireland team’s trip to Florida in November

The South Down MLA said it showed the under-pressure health service had “reached the point of collapse” and the “system isn’t serving the public or our staff”.

A breakdown of the fatalities revealed by Mike Nesbitt’s department include16 recorded deaths in 2020/21; 34 and 37 in the following two years, 50 in 2023/24 and 12 so far in 2024/25.

Last January it was reported that the severely stretched Northern Ireland Ambulance Service (NIAS) was investigating eight incidents of delayed response where death was involved.

The first five of the eight incidents were identified between December 12 – 22 in 2023.

In a written response to Mr McGrath’s question the health minister said this week: “Sadly, given the nature of the NIAS work, patients do, at times, pass away while awaiting an ambulance to arrive.

“However, the determination as to whether a delayed ambulance response has directly contributed to a patient’s death is complex and requires the consideration of a number of factors.

“As part of NIAS’s adverse incident management procedures, all reported incidents of patient death are evaluated to assess whether the timeliness of ambulance response may have impacted the outcome, and, where required, learning and corrective actions are implemented to service delivery.”

A further written question from Mr McGrath also showed that over the past five years, nearly 100,000 calls to NIAS had to be upgraded in their level of severity (which is used to prioritise response times) while patients waited.

This included 21,686 in 2020/21, with 18,307 in 2024 up to November 27 - with a five year total of 97,509.

The NIAS has been contacted for a response.

Mr McGrath said the figures showed the Executive would have “to make the difficult changes necessary within the health service” to ensure proper care was given to those in need.

“The deaths of 149 people while waiting on an ambulance over the last five years shows the scale of the problem we’re dealing with here,” he said.

“I can’t begin to imagine what these people went through, not to mention their families who will be wracked with questions about the death of their loved one.”

He added that the issue was not about paramedics or “incredible” ambulance staff who save lives every day in the most difficult of circumstances, but a health service that has “reached the point of collapse and is unable to provide the care that people need.”

“The minister and his department have pointed to more staff being recruited this year, but failed to mention the number of people leaving or retiring,” he said.

“The problem goes deeper than that and is part of the overall crisis facing our health service.

“For many, particularly in rural areas like mine, ambulance response times can be the difference between life and death. Instead of ambulances being lined up outside emergency departments we need the Executive to make the difficult changes necessary within our health service to ensure that everyone can get the care they need.”