Ambulance response times at Cork University Hospital are longer than at any other hospital in the country, according to a new report by the Health Service Executive.
It takes 42.9 minutes for an ambulance to complete the drop-off of a patient at CUH, according to the research, which has yet to be published.
The second longest is St Joseph’s, in Clonmel, averaging 40.4 minutes. CUH has said it had been extremely busy, with 20,000 new patients since the start of the year. 4,500 of these presented via ambulance.
“CUH is one of the largest ambulance-receiving hospitals in the country and every effort is made to release ambulances as soon as possible, but it is necessary to ensure that patients are transferred to an ED clinical cubicle safely,” said a spokesperson. “It is sometimes the case that several ambulances present at the same time, which can cause some delays and there is a system in place to address delays, when they occur.” The spokesperson said ambulance clinical handover performance is reviewed monthly by the management of CUH. Reasons for delays are also reviewed in detail.
“Early indications are that CUH has seen an improvement in April of this year,” they said.
10/05/16
