According to the most up to date data, the approximate waiting times at Craigavon Area Hospital’s Emergency Department are sitting at a lengthy six hours.
The data, published on NI Direct’s website, gives the approximate waiting time for each of Northern Ireland’s hospitals in minutes using the average waiting times of patients in the previous four-hour period.
Times correct as of 8.45am on the morning of Wednesday (October 8) reveal the waiting time to be seen by a doctor in the Craigavon hospital to be 384 minutes.
However, in Belfast the Royal Children’s Hospital is managing to process patients in an average of 30 – 33 minutes.
And while the website states that “waiting times at emergency departments can change quickly without warning”, Craigavon is currently ranking as the fifth busiest hospital in the country.
Altnagelvin Area Hospital has for the last number of days struggled to get their waiting times below the 500 minute mark… equating to an average eight hour wait for a patient with an accident or emergency to be seen. It continues to remain at the top of the waiting times chart.
According to the Emergency Care Waiting Time Statistics for January to March 2025, the target is for 95% of patients to be seen within A&E Departments is four hours.
The data issued in the report explains that as of March 2025, only 44.5% of patients were treated and discharged or admitted within four hours and 10,827 patients were left waiting for more than 12 hours.
The median data does reveal, however, that waiting times for patients who were discharged home was three hours and 51 minutes, while waiting times for those admitted to hospital was 13 hours and seven minutes.
Advice from the Health Department regarding seeking treatment at an A&E Department is “only go to a hospital emergency department if you, a friend or relative has a medical emergency”.
For urgent treatment which is not immediately life-threatening, patients are advised to use the ‘Phone first’ service.
Attending A&E without using the ‘Phone First’ service and without a medical emergency may result in longer waiting times.
