Sharp fall in patients facing two-hour-plus ambulance handover waits at Antrim and Causeway

A “significant improvement” in lengthy ambulance handover delays at Antrim and Causeway hospitals has been highlighted by the Northern Health and Social Care Trust.

Figures presented to a recent Trust board meeting show the number of patients waiting more than two hours to be handed over to hospital staff fell substantially compared with earlier in the year.

Interim chief executive Suzanne Pullins acknowledged the “commitment and hard work of the emergency teams”.

Two-hour waits fall

A Trust performance report for July showed 122 patients arriving by ambulance at Antrim Hospital waited more than two hours to be handed over to hospital staff.

At Causeway Hospital in Coleraine, 59 patients faced a wait exceeding two hours.

Antrim Hospital received 1,662 ambulance arrivals during July, while Causeway Hospital received 643.

The figures represent an improvement compared with April, when 250 ambulance arrivals at Antrim Hospital and 100 at Causeway Hospital required more than two hours to be transferred into the hospitals’ care.

In May, 35% of patients arriving by ambulance at Antrim Hospital waited more than two hours to be handed over, compared with 16% at Causeway Hospital. Figures for June were not available in the report.

The improvement is more marked when compared with December last year, when 436 patients at Antrim Hospital waited more than two hours for handover following arrival by ambulance, alongside 150 patients at Causeway Hospital.

Most patients handed over within an hour

During July, 78% of patients arriving by ambulance at Antrim Hospital were handed over to hospital staff within 60 minutes. The figure at Causeway Hospital was 72%.

However, fewer than one in 10 patients were handed over within 15 minutes — 8.7% at Antrim and 8.8% at Causeway.

The average patient handover time during July was 48 minutes at Antrim Hospital and 54 minutes at Causeway.

While the number of patients experiencing waits exceeding two hours had improved, average handover times were longer than in May, when they stood at 37 minutes at Antrim and 39 minutes at Causeway.

They remained considerably shorter than in April, when average handover times were 74 minutes at Antrim and 82 minutes at Causeway.

In May, 11.8% of patients arriving by ambulance at Antrim Hospital were handed over within 15 minutes, compared with 8.6% at Causeway.

During the same month, 85% were handed over within 60 minutes at Antrim and 83% at Causeway.

In April, 70% of ambulance handovers at Antrim were completed within 60 minutes, compared with 60% at Causeway. Just 7.9% were completed within 15 minutes at Antrim and 5.9% at Causeway.

Emergency department demand rises

The latest figures come against a backdrop of increasing demand at both hospitals.

Between April and July, emergency department attendances at Antrim Hospital increased by 1.6% compared with the same period last year, while Causeway Hospital recorded a larger rise of 5.7%.

Attendances among patients aged over 75 also increased, by 4.2% at Antrim and 4.3% at Causeway.

Ambulance handover delays have been identified as an issue extending beyond emergency departments themselves.

A Northern Ireland Audit Office report on ambulance handovers, published in March 2025, stated that “timely ambulance hand-overs require appropriate capacity and resources throughout the hospital, including in EDs and adequate care capacity within the community to enable timely patient discharges”.