Elderly woman forced to wait over three hours for an ambulance

COUNCILLOR Liona O’Toole is calling for change following reports of lengthy delays in ambulance services after an elderly person was forced to wait over three hours for an ambulance.

It was reported this week that an elderly person suffered a fall in the locality, prompting a member of the public to contact emergency services, which did not show for a total of three hours and 22 minutes.

“I’ve heard people speaking on national radio about long ambulance delays. Today I received a call from a friend and witnessed the worry and frustration as this situation unfolded in our own community,” she shared on social media.

Councillor O’Toole sympathised with frontline staff and those providing emergency services and clarified that it is not the fault of the staff but a wider issue.

“This is not a criticism of the individual paramedics, Gardaí or call handlers doing their jobs.

“But something is seriously wrong when a person in their 90s who has been injured in a fall can be left waiting 3 hours and 22 minutes for an ambulance.”

Due to the delayed response, Cllr O’Toole was forced to contact Gardaí in hopes they would be able to provide assistance quicker than the ambulance service but this process was also time-consuming.

Cllr O’Toole raised the question of the rate at which Ireland’s population has grown and whether essential service providers have received the appropriate facilities and level of staffing to keep up.

She clarified that this issue will be brought further “through the appropriate channels” and hopes to gain a better understanding of just how widespread this problem is.

‘Cllr O’Toole took to social media to raise awareness of the issue and ask members of the public to share their experiences of slow emergency response times to begin to understand just how common this issue is.