A woman who was badly injured in a fall and had broken her ankle had to be brought to A&E in a car after being told it would be several hours before an ambulance was available.

Last Thursday, April 14, SDLP Fermanagh and South Tyrone Assembly election candidate and local councillor Adam Gannon was out canvassing on the Loughshore Road in Enniskillen when he and those he was with came to the aid of the woman.

The woman had been badly injured in a fall; however, when an ambulance was called, it was clear that there would be a long wait due to the lack of available vehicles in the area.

Comfortable

After making the woman comfortable, Councillor Gannon helped her into a neighbour’s car so she could be taken to A&E.

Speaking after helping the injured woman, Councillor Gannon has called for urgent action to address ambulance response times in the North.

“We all know how bad the crisis is in our health system, and it is also severely impacting the level of care that the ambulance service can provide to people in our communities,” said Councillor Gannon.

“Just last week, we heard how a woman in Newry died while waiting for an ambulance, and these kinds of stories seem to becoming all too common with the huge pressure services and staff are under.

“People in this area are no strangers to the issues impacting the health service.

“People are regularly struggling to access GP appointments and our waiting lists for important treatments just keep getting longer.

“Despite being well aware of the challenges we are facing, it is still jarring when you experience them first-hand.

“While out canvassing in Enniskillen on Thursday with our South Belfast MP Claire Hanna, and other party activists, we came across a woman who had suffered a bad injury in a fall.

“Having previously served with St. John Ambulance, I did everything I could to reassure the woman and make her comfortable before calling for an ambulance.

“I was shocked to be told that this woman faced a long wait before any ambulance would be available, and the only option available to us was to help her into a neighbour’s car to take her for treatment.”

Councillor Gannon stressed that he understands how hard ambulance staff service work, and the “unimaginable pressure” they are under.

However, he continued: “They and patients are being let down by the failure to implement long-overdue reform. The SDLP has been urging the implementation of the NI Ambulance Service Clinical Response Model since it was first mooted in 2017.

‘Reform’

“This much-needed reform would involve the training of hundreds of paramedics and other staff and greatly enhance the care our ambulance service would provide.

“We have heard far too many horror stories in recent weeks of people in health emergencies being told there simply is no ambulance to help them; that elderly people are left lying on the ground, or seriously ill people are being turned away is absolutely shameful.

“People across the North and particularly in rural communities are suffering and we must make a properly resourced ambulance service a top priority in the next [Northern Ireland] Executive.”

When contacted by The Impartial Reporter, a Northern Ireland Ambulance Service (NIAS) spokesperson apologised to “any patient or carer has [sic] not received the standard of service, which they would have expected”.

They continued: “The major pressure on NIAS remains delayed turnaround times at Emergency Departments, which directly impacts upon our ability to respond to calls waiting in the community as NIAS crews end up having to continue to care for their patients in the back of an ambulance for considerable periods even after arriving at hospital.”

The NIAS spokesperson said NIAS will prioritise calls based on clinical need, and at times of “extreme pressure” some callers may have to wait longer than “we would like or that they would expect”.