Lack of recruitment leaves no possibility of filling the NIAS staffing gap in next five years
Unite has challenged the ongoing failure of the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service (NIAS) to meet its response time targets and called for a new ambitious approach to recruitment to fill the staffing gap. The union has released statistics highlighting the serious and consistent failure to meet targets for either category one or category two cases.
The latest available figures [Monday 2 March] were exceptionally poor. For category one call-outs (patient not breathing) against a target time of eight minutes, the average turnout was 19 minutes and seven seconds. The upper limit (90 per cent performance) target is 15 minutes – that figure yesterday was 49 minutes and 36 seconds.
For category two (including patients with suspected heart attacks but still breathing) the target is 18 minutes – yesterday the average was 56 minutes and 14 seconds (more than three times the target). The 90 percentile performance target is 40 minutes – this was two hours, 22 minutes and 27 seconds. [See note for editors below for last quarter figures].
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham blasted the figures, “The turnout times for ambulances in Northern Ireland are shocking. Lives are being lost because of the failure to recruit.
“Our members are being asked to pay the price of short staffing by being forced to cover shortages through family unfriendly shifts. It is long overdue for the minister of health to intervene to resolve this crisis.”
Acute staffing shortages have led to attempts to impose family-unfriendly shifts on hard pressed paramedics and ambulance staff which has resulted in a protracted industrial dispute.
The latest NIAS long-term workforce growth plan provides no increase whatsoever to the number of paramedics and emergency medical technicians before 2029-30.
Unite regional officer Norman Cunningham said, “We reject entirely any attempts to blame ambulance workers for this crisis. Paramedics and ambulance workers refuse to pay the price for management’s failure to recruit.
At best plans for the next five years will only replace those who are due to retire – leaving the staffing gap as it is. Things will only get worse until we see a new approach.”
Unite represents the majority of NIAS paramedics. Its members continue a work-to-rule, taking industrial action short of strike action against the imposition of non-family friendly shifts and for safe staffing and safe working conditions.
ENDS…
Note for editors:
- For the most urgent calls (category one – which includes patients who are not breathing) – there are two targets. The first is the average time to turnout which is eight minutes and the second is a target that ninety per cent of all ambulances will arrive within 15 minutes. On the latest statistics available, [for Monday 2 March] the average turnout time was 19 minutes 7 seconds (139 per cent above target) while the average over the last quarter was 12 minutes and 37 seconds – still significantly above the target. On Monday the average ninety per cent turnout time for category one calls was 49 minutes and 36 seconds (more than three times the upper limit target). Over the last quarter that was 24 minutes and 36 seconds – still considerably above the target.
- In regard to category two call outs, which includes patients with a suspected heart attack but still breathing, the NIAS target for average time to arrive is 18 minutes with a ninetieth percentile turnout target of 40 minutes. Performance against these targets is much worse. The average time to arrive on Monday 2 March was 56 minutes and 14 seconds with 10 per cent of ambulances taking more than 2 hours 22 minutes and 27 seconds to arrive. Over the last quarter, the average time for an ambulance to arrive was one hour, 56 minutes and 15 seconds with 10 per cent of ambulances arriving after four hours, 36 minutes and 30 seconds.
