Almost one in ten ambulance crews had to wait for more than an hour before being allowed to hand over patients at hospitals in April.
A report published by the National Ambulance Service shows that most ambulance crews waited longer than the HSE target of 20 minutes to discharge patients at Emergency Departments.
Ambulances spent over 8,000 hours delayed at hospital Emergency Departments in one month.
Cork University Hospital was shown to have the longest wait times, with 89% of ambulances delayed longer than 20 minutes.
Ambulance response times have been the subject of focus after a number of deaths involving people who had to wait for ambulances.
Denis Naughten, TD for Roscommon / South Leitrim, says we need to properly resource the ambulance service:
