It took 3 hours and 11minutes for an ambulance to arrive at a life-threatening emergency in Co Cavan.
Distance involved was cited for such a long delay by the HSE. According to figures released under freedom of information, it has taken over one hour to arrive to over 200 emergencies across Cavan and Monaghan last year.
2 hours and 43 minutes was the timeframe for an ambulance to respond to an emergency call in County Monaghan. The figures revealed that in 212 emergency call outs by the ambulance services across the Northern Sound region the wait times all exceeded 1 hour.
Under HSE targets, an ambulance should arrive at the scene of a life-threatening heart or respiratory arrest within 19 minutes in 75 per cent of cases. In all other critical cases, that response time should be met in 45 per cent of cases. Nationally the longest wait was 4 hours and 8 minutes in Co Carlow, with the HSE’s National Ambulance Service blaming the volume of work.
The HSE says these figures represent only a fraction of the emergencies dealt with throughout 2023.
