Seriously Ill Forced to Wait

THOUSANDS of patients battling life-threatening emergencies have been left waiting because of under-funding of the ambulance service, an MLA claimed yesterday.

Only half of the most serious incidents were responded to within the eight-minute target time last year, official figures obtained by Patsy McGlone revealed.

He added: “When Accident and Emergency at the Mid-Ulster was run down we were told that would be compensated for by an improved ambulance service but that has not happened.”

The UK target is for 75 per cent of people most in danger to be attended to within eight minutes.

But ambulance service manager Ruth McNamara said their “interim target” was 65 per cent.

(c) 2007 Daily Mirror. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.