Ambulance handover times at the Northern Health and Social Care Trust have improved dramatically, board members were told at a recent meeting at Antrim Area Hospital. The average time fell by roughly half between April and May.

In May, the average ambulance handover at Antrim Hospital was 37 minutes, down from 74 minutes in April. At Causeway Hospital in Coleraine, the average fell from 82 minutes to 39 minutes over the same period.

The share of patients handed over within 15 minutes also increased. At Antrim, it rose from 7.9 per cent in April to 11.8 per cent in May, while at Causeway it went from 5.9 per cent to 8.6 per cent.

Despite the gains, a significant minority of patients still faced long waits. In May, 35 per cent of ambulance arrivals at Antrim waited more than two hours for handover, compared with 16 per cent at Causeway. The numbers were higher in April, when 250 patients at Antrim and 100 at Causeway exceeded two hours.

Interim Chief Executive Suzanne Pullins told the board the improvement was marked and that ambulance turnaround times had been a long-standing area of focus.

Audrey Harris, Director of Medicine and Emergency Medicine, said the Trust was still meeting Northern Ireland Ambulance Service improvement targets and had been the highest-performing region in the previous two weeks. She noted that NIAS handles the highest volume of calls within the Northern Trust area.

Despite the positive trend, emergency departments remained under strain. At noon on 2 July, Antrim Hospital’s ED had 102 people waiting, including 42 who had been there more than 12 hours, with a further 42 awaiting a bed. At Causeway, 66 were waiting, 21 for over 12 hours, and 24 were awaiting admission.

A report by the Northern Ireland Audit Office in March 2025 stated that timely ambulance handovers require adequate capacity throughout the hospital, including in emergency departments, and sufficient community care to enable timely patient discharges.