Elderly woman left waiting two hours for ambulance despite living just 10 minutes from Galway hospital
The deployment of ambulances from the Ballinasloe area to Galway city is leaving the region without any cover at night, a local councillor has warned
An elderly woman who suffered a fall her home in Ballinasloe had to wait for almost two hours for an ambulance despite living just 10 minutes from Portiuncula Hospital, it has emerged.
The patient was a relative of local councillor, Alan Harney, who raised the case at the HSE Regional Health Forum this week to highlight issues concerning ambulance cover for the area at nighttime.
Speaking to the Galway Live, Cllr Harney explained that there is typically only one ambulance based at Portiuncula at night, while another is based in Loughglinn, Co Roscommon.
When one of these ambulances is tasked with transporting a patient to University Hospital Galway (UHG), however, it can take up to two hours for it to return to base – leaving the region without adequate cover.
The situation can be made more precarious as a result of the “dynamic deployment” system used by the National Ambulance Service (NAS), which can see ambulances from other regions dispatched to other calls in the city while they are in the area.
“We’re seeing an increased number of conveyances of patients from our region directly to UHG for care, which is understandable,” said the Fine Gael councillor.
“But the problem that arises is that… an ambulance that brings a patient from this region to UHG could take an hour or two to turn around, and on its way back from Galway it could get redeployed to a call in Renmore or Oranmore or anywhere else.
“If that happens, then there’s no ambulance covering our region at night. There’s nothing to say that an ambulance couldn’t be called three or four times at night when it’s coming back from Galway, so we could be left with no ambulance service for an entire night,” he added.
Cllr Harney said this was the case when his relative fell at her home and ended up on the ground for three hours before an ambulance finally arrived to bring her to hospital.
“As I understand it, the ambulance based in Portiuncula had brought patients to Galway, which is absolutely fine. And then on the return, it was redeployed to a call in Galway city,” he said.
“Thankfully, the outcome was okay but it certainly did have a negative impact on the night, and obviously it caused additional stress and anxiety due to the significant delay waiting for an ambulance.”
Cllr Harney has written to the health minister in relation to the issue, and has raised it with the NAS, which told him that it is seeking additional resources for East Galway.
“Why should people in our region be at a deficit to provide an additional service to people in the city?” he asked.
“The service for this region just isn’t good enough at night time, and I don’t want to see lives lost because our ambulances are tied up in Galway city for hours on end when they should be in our region and looking after the needs of our community.”