Elderly patient claims five hour ambulance wait
Thursday, 23 October 2008
by Stephen McKiernan.
THE Northern Ireland Ambulance Service (NIAS) has refuted allegations that an elderly man waited up to five hours for an ambulance - that did not arrive - at Tyrone County Hospital.
The claim was made by Fermanagh/South Tyrone MLA, Tommy Gallagher, who said the elderly man, a native of Belleek, Co Fermanagh, was eventually left with no way home on Monday afternoon of last week. Mr Gallagher is demanding a full inquiry into the alleged incident.
The man, who wishes to remain anonymous, was picked up by ambulance for his 2pm appointment, and arranged a return journey for 4pm, but claims the ambulance did not show.
He further claims to have phoned the NIAS twice during his wait and a third call was made by outpatient staff, before the department closed at 5pm., only to be told there had been a change of shift at NIAS, and that "someone would turn up soon."
The elderly patient said he could not afford a taxi, £45 from Omagh to Belleek. He says his son eventually collected him before 7pm.
“I am told this is not the first time, in fact, there was a similar incident last week, but that concerned someone who lived much closer to the hospital," said Mr Gallagher.
“It should be a relatively simple task for one shift to hand over important tasks to the next, and one can only presume that is what ambulance service managers get paid for.
“This is the standard of care we have in the west today, and that is before we suffer the proposed cutbacks in ambulance cover. Our hospitals have vast catchment areas with some of the worst roads in the north and we should have an appropriate service to cope with these disadvantages. Instead, we have an inferior service with every likelihood that it will get worse. The service needs to improve and the management system in NI Ambulance Service needs to improve immediately.
“I want to see a full inquiry into how a frail patient could be left standing many miles from home in a closed hospital department, and I will take it to ministerial level, if necessary."
However, an NIAS spokesperson denied the length of time the patient claims to have waited, but said NIAS regretted any delay for patients.
“The NIAS has been made aware, through the media, of the dissatisfaction of the relatives of an elderly gentleman in relation to waiting time experienced for non-emergency transport after an outpatient appointment," said the spokesperson.
“NIAS regrets any delay in the provision of transport for patients. The Patient Care Service transports approximately 220,000 patients per year. The journey to any appointment is planned in advance but the homeward journey is dependant upon the time that the appointment has been completed. For this reason, it can prove difficult to co-ordinate homeward journeys in the same manner. Crews may already be transporting one patient home when another becomes ready and, therefore, can only return to the hospital when available."
The spokesperson further stated NIAS received calls from the patient at 4.30pm and 5.20pm, and claims the patient was told an ambulance may take another hour to arrive. He further claimed the patient cancelled the ambulance request at 5.38pm.
“The time between NIAS being made aware of the patient being ready and the cancellation of the call was approximately one hour and 40 minutes and not over five hours, as has been suggested to us," he added.
NIAS invited the family of this patient to contact the Trust's complaint manager, who will investigate the circumstances and provide a detailed explanation. The complaints manager can be contacted on 028 9040 0999
