An ambulance waited outside a Northern Ireland Emergency Department for more than 19 hours before a patient was admitted to hospital, new figures show.
The lengthy wait was recorded at the Ulster Hospital in Dundonald and was the longest delay faced by the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service in the December 2025 period.
The wait was revealed as part of figures provided by Health Minister Mike Nesbitt in response to an Assembly Question from Alliance MLA Danny Donnelly.
A report by Northern Ireland’s Comptroller and Auditor General last year found that ambulance handover delays led to tens of thousands of instances of potential harm to patients.
It comes as hospital emergency departments (EDs) across the region continue to be under pressure with high volumes of patients.
Health trusts had promised heading into winter last year that handovers to emergency departments in Northern Ireland should not take longer than two hours by the start of December.
The figures provided by the Health minister included statistics on the average wait time for handovers, the longest delay recorded at each hospital, and the percentage of arrivals with delays longer than two hours, all from December 2025.
The longest wait recorded was at the Ulster Hospital, where a patient waited in the back of an ambulance for 19 hours and four minutes before entering the hospital.
The Dundonald hospital also saw the highest percentage of waits over two hours, as 40% of ambulances reported being delayed over that amount of time. It was also the only hospital recorded where the average wait time was more than two hours, at two hours and 28 minutes.
The South Eastern Trust says its staff are working under “enormous pressure” and that ambulance handover delays are “not unique” to its hospitals.
Long ambulance delays were also recorded at other hospitals across the north in December 2025.
A wait of more than 16 hours was recorded at the Causeway Hospital, while 15-hour waits were registered at Craigavon and Antrim Area Hospitals.
Table: Ambulance handover times at NI hospitals in December 2025. (Source: DoH)
A statement from Mike Nesbitt attached to the figures said his department was aware of the challenges faced by ambulance handover times and is working to address them.
The minister said progress had been made on reducing waits of more than 12 hours across all health trusts, with the exception of the Southern Trust.
“My Department recognises the significant pressures faced by EDs and the impact these have on ambulance handover times and overall system flow,” Mr Nesbitt said.
“Through the Overarching Winter Preparedness Plan 2025–26, a comprehensive set of actions has been developed to address these challenges.
“With regard to improving ambulance handover times, in August 2025 a regional workshop involving Trusts and the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service (NIAS) was convened, drawing on best practice from the London Ambulance Service and King George Hospital. Based on this, new ambulance handover guidance is being finalised.”
A South Eastern Trust spokesperson said: “Our staff in the South Eastern Trust, who liaise closely with NIAS, work extremely hard, under enormous pressure, to care for patients when they need it most.
“The challenges in our Emergency Department (ED) and the, at times, long ambulance turnaround times, are not unique to the Trust.
“This is not the service we want to provide, nor the service the public deserves, as we know how distressing long ambulance waits can be, not just for a patient, but also for their families.”
The spokesperson added it was working at pace in order to provide more services in the community to reduce hospital admissions.
“While patients are waiting to come into the Emergency Department, our ED staff work with their NIAS colleagues to ensure the patient gets the best possible care, until a space in ED becomes available.
“There is no single solution to the complex problem of ambulance turnarounds but the Trust is confident the answer lies in increasing the care available to people in the Community.
“We have expanded our Hospital at Home service and have put in place a Specialist Frailty Team to assess the care needs of older people in ED, to facilitate an early discharge home.
“The Trust is continuing to work hard to provide more support services in the Community, to try and avoid hospital admissions, if possible.”
Stormont health committee member Mr Donnelly says no one should be in the position where they are forced to wait for 19 hours in an ambulance.
“The facts are stark, with each case being someone experiencing an agonising wait. Nobody should be in that position,” he told The Irish News.
“The Health Minister has yet to bring forward a workforce plan to tackle these unacceptable delays, and while winter pressures undoubtedly add to the problem, this is a year-round issue.
“Alliance has raised this issue in the Assembly, calling for the Minister to bring proposals to tackle capacity problems.
“Ambulance Service staff deserve praise for working in such challenging conditions and need help from the Minister, who needs to reform the system to address blockages in patient flow and build capacity in the community.”