Ambulance crews have had to wait with patients at emergency departments across Northern Ireland for up to 10 hours because of chronic hospital overcrowding, UTV can reveal.

The NI Ambulance Service has warned that, while paramedics are tied up at A&Es, 999 calls are stacking up.

The revelations come as the Department of Health announced that a special summit will be held to review urgent and emergency care services.

They receive 600 emergency calls every single day and, in many cases, a quick response can be the difference between life and death.

Fifty-eight ambulance crews operate across Northern Ireland on a daily basis.

But, all too often, many are tied up at emergency departments, tending to patients that the hospital is too busy to deal with.

When an ambulance crew arrives with a patient at the emergency department, their target is to be back on the road ready for another call within 30 minutes.

But information obtained by UTV from the Ambulance Service shows that, over a six-month period, maximum weekly waiting times ranged from just over two hours to almost 10 hours.

In one incident at the Ulster Hospital in December, an ambulance crew had to stay with a patient for a staggering nine hours and 54 minutes before A&E staff could take over.

Craigavon Area Hospital has also struggled with lengthy waits, with maximum handover times during the same period of up to five-and-a-half hours.

Until overcrowding in A&Es is resolved, paramedics will simply have to continue plugging the gaps.