Northern Ireland Ambulance Service Facts for Kids

Quick facts for kids Northern Ireland Ambulance Service Health and Social Care Trust

Established	1 April 1995
Headquarters	Belfast
Region served	Northern Ireland
Area size	5,345 square miles (13,840 km²)
Population	1.9 million
Establishments	46 stations and deployment points
Chair	Michele Larmour
Chief executive	Michael Bloomfield
Staff	1,300 (2018/19)

The Northern Ireland Ambulance Service (NIAS, Irish: Seirbhís Otharchairr Thuaisceart Éireann) is a special service that helps people across Northern Ireland. It serves about 1.9 million people. Like other ambulance services in the United Kingdom, NIAS does not charge people for its help. Instead, it gets money from taxes. NIAS has over 300 vehicles, including ambulances and smaller support cars. They use these vehicles to respond to medical emergencies.

How the Ambulance Service Started
What Services Does NIAS Provide?
How NIAS Performance is Measured
- Challenges and Improvements
See also

How the Ambulance Service Started

The Northern Ireland Ambulance Service was created on April 1, 1995. It was formed by joining together four older ambulance services. Its full name is the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service Health and Social Care Trust.

The service is divided into five main areas to cover all of Northern Ireland:

Belfast Area
South Eastern Area
Western Area
Northern Area
Southern Area

Ambulance in Ann Street, Belfast, October 2009

What Services Does NIAS Provide?

NIAS has about 1,300 staff members. Around 420 of them are paramedics, and 300 are emergency medical technicians (EMTs). About 100 staff work in the control centres. They all work in shifts so the service is available 24 hours a day, every day of the week.

Where NIAS Staff Work

NIAS staff work from 46 stations and smaller bases. They also have two control centres. One is for emergency calls, and the other is for non-emergency calls. There is also a special training centre for ambulance staff.

Responding to Emergency Calls

NIAS gets about 201,000 emergency (999) calls each year. This number is growing every year. They use different types of vehicles to respond:

Emergency Ambulances: These usually have two crew members. They respond to both emergency and urgent calls. They also help move very sick patients between hospitals.
Rapid Response Vehicles (RRVs): These are smaller vehicles, often driven by a single paramedic. They are used for the most serious calls where someone's life might be in danger. RRVs can get to the scene faster than a regular ambulance. They can also help with less serious calls that might not need a hospital visit.

NIAS tries to make sure that at least one paramedic goes to every emergency call. They do this by having two paramedics, or a paramedic and an EMT, on each emergency ambulance. They also use RRVs with a paramedic.

Patient Transport Services

Besides emergency services, NIAS also has Patient Care Service vehicles. These are used for regular patient transport to and from hospitals. This service includes:

Sitting Case Vehicles: These are like minibuses for patients who can sit up.
Intermediate Care Vehicles (ICVs): These are larger vehicles with two crew members and a stretcher for patients who need to lie down.

Training Paramedics

In 2019, NIAS teamed up with Ulster University to offer a special degree for paramedics. The first group of trainees finished their course in 2019. Now, Ulster University manages the paramedic degree directly.

Air Ambulance Service

In 2016, NIAS started a helicopter emergency medical service (HEMS). Before this, Northern Ireland was the only part of the UK without one. NIAS works with a charity called Air Ambulance Northern Ireland. The charity provides the helicopter and its base. NIAS provides the doctors and paramedics who work on the helicopter. The air ambulance started its first real mission in August 2017.

How NIAS Performance is Measured

NIAS uses a special system to sort emergency calls by how urgent they are. For the most serious calls, where someone's life is at risk, NIAS aims to arrive within eight minutes.

Challenges and Improvements

Sometimes, NIAS faces challenges in meeting its target response times. This can be due to more people needing help, especially with an aging population. Also, there have been cuts to public spending in Northern Ireland.

NIAS works with volunteer and private ambulance services to help meet response times. Staff have also shared concerns about the increasing pressure they face. The ambulance service plans to make changes to handle future increases in demand.

In 2018, NIAS asked the Department of Health for extra money. They wanted £30 million to make changes and hire 300 more staff. These new staff would include paramedics, EMTs, and people to answer emergency calls. This plan aims to make response times faster and reduce pressure on staff. However, as of May 2022, this money had not been given.

In July 2022, the average response time for less urgent but still serious calls (like a stroke) was longer. The Chief Executive of NIAS, Michael Bloomfield, has said he is disappointed. He believes staff shortages and long waits to hand over patients at Emergency Departments are part of the problem.

Northern Ireland Ambulance Service facts for kids

Contents