Woman waited for hours for ambulance after icy fall in Cork

A woman with additional needs was left lying on icy ground in Togher for two hours on Tuesday, because no ambulance was available.

Dolores Hart’s family said that when they finally got to Cork University Hospital, there were multiple ambulances waiting outside for patients to be admitted.

Dolores, who has additional needs, was left lying on the icy ground after she slipped and fell.

Clare Hart, Dolores’s sister-in-law and carer, told The Echo: “It was unbelievable. Dolores fell about 9.50am.

“She slipped on the ground by the next door neighbour’s house and they rang me, so I ran down to her.

“She was on the ground, and we couldn’t pick her up: We were afraid to move her, in case we did more damage,” Clare said, adding that they rang the ambulance five times over the two hours.

“We threw blankets on her, but we were freezing, standing out there, and she was, too. Her GP came down to us, but Dolores has intellectual disabilities and is bipolar, so she couldn’t tell us exactly where the pain was.”

The GP also rang the ambulance, and a first responder came and examined Dolores before ringing an ambulance himself, with one eventually arriving at 12:10. Ms Hart said: “When we got to the hospital, I counted seven ambulances with people in them waiting to be taken into hospital. The ambulances had to wait until people were handed over, and we weren’t handed over until quarter to two.”

She added that she heard there were nearly 50 people waiting for ambulances in Cork at that time, saying: “I understand there were so many accidents, but my concern was we didn’t know how serious Dolores’ condition was, if anything had been broken.

“Thank God, she broke nothing, but she has very heavy bruising, and it’s lucky she didn’t get pneumonia with how long she was lying on the ground shivering. It could have been 100 times worse.

“We had blankets and a hot water bottle brought to her by neighbours. I couldn’t thank the neighbours enough, I would have been lost without them. Dolores was shaking saying to me to please call the ambulance again. We were trying to keep her calm because she was screaming and roaring.”

Ms Hart said that she was looking after Dolores now as she was “very sore” after the ordeal, adding: “I’m not blaming the staff in CUH or ambulance people because they were working very hard, but it was like a third world country.”

Sinn Féin TD Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire told The Echo he will be raising the issue with HSE management. “It is unacceptable that a person with additional needs, or anybody, could be left lying on the ground for hours on a cold day.

“I’m aware that yesterday was really busy, and the ambulance personnel themselves cannot be faulted as they were working very hard — the reality is the service is stretched far too thinly and there are issues with the hospital having delays allowing people to be admitted if it’s leaving multiple ambulances tied up.

“It was clearly a challenging day, but there will be challenging days and this should never be the outcome.”

A HSE spokesperson told The Echo they cannot discuss details on individual cases due to confidentiality, but explained: “The National Ambulance Service (NAS) operates a dynamic model of ambulance deployment, in line with international best practice. It allows the NAS to prioritise resource allocation to calls that need an immediate emergency response.

“Unfortunately, at times of high demand this can mean that patients suffering from non-life-threatening illnesses or injuries can experience delays as we respond to incidents such as cardiac arrests and road traffic collisions.”