Almost 239,000 ambulances spent over half an hour at a hospital last year, before offloading a patient and getting back on the road.
It represents four out of every five ambulances that arrived at emergency departments.
The HSE’s target is less than 30 minutes – but delays at EDs mean that’s not being met.
David Hall, the chief executive of Lifeline Ambulance Service, says many ambulances wait a lot longer than half an hour:
