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Newry and Armagh MLA Justin McNulty has said that an incident on 4 April at Canal Street in Newry, where a victim of a road traffic collision was left lying on the road in the pouring rain for over an hour and a half while waiting for an ambulance is indicative of a wider problem.
Newry.ie covered the story on the day which saw the patient taken to hospital by a St John's Ambulance that by sheer luck just happened to be passing 90 minutes after 999 was called.
In a follow up Newry.ie asked the NI Ambulance Service how many ambulance crews were on duty, based at Newry Ambulance Station on Saturday 4th April. In their reply they said that they had no crews planned into Newry station for the day shift.
A NIAS spokesperson said: "On Saturday 4th April 2026 at 16:15hrs we had no crews planned into Newry Station for day shift. We had one crew in Kilkeel station working a 0700-1900hrs shift and one in Banbridge on an 0800-2000hr. There were a total of 10 crews operational on 4th April day shift in South division."
Commenting on the information McNulty said: "This lack of staffing is dangerous and severely limit the response time of emergency first responders"
"I am concerned that traumatising and life threatening incidents such as this one will become more common if ambulance services are inadequately staffed. Not having any ambulance service workers to staff a Saturday day shift cannot become the norm. The people of Newry deserve to know that if they are experiencing an emergency and have to call an ambulance, their local station will have staff on ready to promptly help them."
The MLA added: "I have written to the Minister for Health to ask if having no crew based in the Newry Ambulance Station has become the norm. I also asked him to detail what actions his Department is taking to ensure adequate staffing in ambulance services across the North."
Read full story at: Road victim lay on road for over an hour and a half waiting for an Ambulance
