14-hour wait in pain: Son slams mother’s wait for ambulance in West Cork

AN elderly woman spent 14 hours in severe pain waiting for an ambulance to take her 25km to Cork University Hospital, her son has alleged.

Eamon Lucey told The Echo his 88-year-old mother suffered a fall while walking near her home outside Bandon on Monday and was in pain, with injuries to her hip and shoulder.

Mr Lucey said an ambulance was called at approximately 2pm, but despite numerous follow-up calls to the National Ambulance Service (NAS), no ambulance arrived and the family called SouthDoc that evening.

The doctor who attended Mr Lucey’s mother then placed a 112 call for an ambulance at approximately 10pm on Monday, and when no ambulance had arrived by 3am on Tuesday, her family made another call.

“All this time she was in severe pain and unable to move from her position in an armchair, and there was no way she could have been moved to the horizontal position or moved by car to hospital,” Mr Lucey said.

An ambulance arrived at approximately 4am, Mr Lucey said, and his mother was then driven 25km from Bandon to Cork University Hospital (CUH).

She was admitted to CUH at 5am and found to be suffering from a broken shoulder and a hairline fracture to the hip.

Mr Lucey said his family was grateful for the professionalism of the paramedics who tended to his mother, but he said she should have been treated as a priority case from their first call for an ambulance.

“Fifteen hours from first call in Bandon to admission in CUH seems a record low in the dismal records of the National Ambulance Service,” Mr Lucey said.

“As a family we don’t want anyone else in West Cork suffering the same indignity as a result of bureaucracy and a total lack of understanding of the reality on the ground.”

A spokesperson for the NAS said they could not comment on individual cases, but stated: “At the time we received this call we were experiencing very high demand for 999 services for patients with immediately life-threatening injuries and illnesses and experiencing significant delays at hospitals. Unfortunately, this meant that some patients with lower acuity needs had longer waits.”