What is more shocking – the fact that a patient had to wait 25 hours for handover from an ambulance crew outside a hospital, or that such grim statistics have become almost normalised when discussing the chronic problems afflicting our health service?
The figures, released by Health Minister Mike Nesbitt in response to an assembly question, provide further evidence of the stark situation at emergency departments across Northern Ireland in recent weeks.
As well as the ambulance patient that was left waiting more than a day at Antrim Area Hospital, there has been a handover time of 23 and a half hours recorded at the Ulster Hospital since December 1, and almost 19 hours at both the Craigavon and the Causeway sites. Hospitals in Belfast and Derry also recorded waits in double figures.
Average ambulance handover times at each of the north's hospitals ranged from around 30 minutes to over three hours at the Ulster Hospital.
Nearly half of all handovers took longer than 60 minutes, with an overall average wait of just under two hours.
As well as the distress caused to patients, and possible harm, the knock-on effect for the ambulance service in trying to respond to emergency calls when staff are unable to leave hospitals is both obvious and alarming.
The reasons for delays in handing over patients are well known, with our overburdened hospital services suffering blockages at both ends.
Too many people are arriving to seek treatment – particularly during winter months – and while good work is being done to triage 999 calls and reduce unnecessary A&E attendance, clearly much more needs to be done.
There are also serious difficulties freeing up hospital beds because of delays in discharging patients, with a further question by the DUP's Diane Dodds providing an insight into some of the issues.
As of January 16, there were more than 540 patients deemed medically fit for discharge, with 'internal hospital processes', lack of domiciliary care packages and delays in admission to care homes among reasons for delays.
How many more sets of shocking statistics will it take for change to happen; how many more winters of staff being overrun and patients stranded for hours in ambulances or in overcrowded waiting rooms?
If we are to truly believe that this latest iteration of devolved government is different, that it is intent on delivering for people, then a collective pledge is required from the entire executive that 2025 will be the year when real progress in fixing our broken health service is finally achieved.
