‘Sooner rather than later, someone is going to die’

Woman crushed in mixer in workplace accident at weekend waits 72 minutes for ambulance

“Sooner rather than later, someone in this county is going to lose their life because of the too slow wait time for an ambulance.”

That was the stark warning delivered by Cllr Damien Brady at this week’s meeting of Cavan County Council, the first since last month’s local elections.

The Sinn Féin councillor is calling on Cavan County Council to write to the Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly and the HSE over “unacceptable” wait times for an ambulance in Co Cavan.

He made the call following a serious accident the weekend before last.

Cllr Brady revealed how, in the early hours of Sunday morning, June 29, at around 4am, he was alerted to a workplace accident in a local factory in which a young woman was crushed in a mixer. “Her colleagues assisted her until we got there but it was 72 minutes before the ambulance arrived,” he revealed.

“That ambulance came from Donegal Town.” It’s understood the woman involved is receiving treatment in hospital for her injuries.

Asked by the Celt about the delay, the HSE confirmed that it received a call to assist an injured party in Ballyconnell at 4:09am on Saturday, June 29, but said that it "cannot comment on individual cases" as to do so might identify the individual involved and their right to confidentiality.

A statement read: 'At the time we received this call, we were experiencing a high demand for 112/999 services for patients in the region. As demand can exceed available resources, 112/999 calls are clinically triaged and prioritised to ensure that those patients with life-threatening injuries or conditions receive the fastest response possible."

The National Ambulance Service (NAS) also thanked members of Cavan Fire Service who provided first responder assistance to the injured party in this case.

The HSE also emphasised that, nationally, the NAS has exceeded response time targets for life-threatening calls in the first four months of 2024 compared to the same period in 2023, despite an increase in these calls of 15%.

'Slow'

Meanwhile, at Monday's county council meeting, Cllr Brady told those gathered in the council chamber on Monday that, in his 25 years working as a fireman and first responder, he has never seen ambulance wait times as “slow” as what they have become over the last couple of years.

The Ballyconnell man insisted the crisis within the service “isn’t a reflection on the men and women who operate it in a very professional manner” but rather it’s because of poor staffing levels and burnout among workers.

“Two years ago in August, we [Cavan Fire Service] were alerted to a single vehicle motorcycle crash on the Killeshandra Road out of Ballyconnell,” he continued.

“A young man crashed his bike and lay in a field for an hour and 40 minutes. The local fire service attended. We have very professional first responders but we just don’t have the level of training that a paramedic does.”

Elsewhere, in August last year, Cllr Brady indicated that the local fire service received a call to attend a “very serious” incident in a farmyard in the parish of Templeport where a young boy knocked down in the yard was unconscious.

He said that at the fire station that day, the ambulance’s Estimated Time of Arrival (ETA) was 72 minutes. “I got all the information I could and made a call to order in the air ambulance. The helicopter arrived in the field next to the house, the child was lifted at 14:02 and was in a Dublin hospital before 14:30 that day. That child made a full recovery,” added Cllr Brady.

Giving more recent examples, he told how Cavan Fire Service attended an accident close to the Slieve Russell Hotel. One person was injured and, as Cllr Brady put it, “luckily that particular night, an ambulance on another call took the patient into the back of the vehicle” because the ambulance that was initially dispatched was nowhere in sight. However, as the meeting heard, that situation also brought red tape issues to the fore.

“Because of the regulations, and by virtue of the fact there were two patients in the back, the ambulance wasn’t allowed to travel on,” Cllr Brady continued. “The paramedics treated the patients as best they could. The ambulance was parked so long that the woman in the ambulance was eventually taken to hospital by her friend in their car. There was no ambulance available at Cavan General Hospital that night.”

Concluding, Cllr Brady said: “Ambulance wait times in Co Cavan is a very serious issue and these are just examples of my experiences in the recent past. I think that staffing levels in the service are at the root of the problems.

“Those working in the service are complaining of burnout because they find themselves working such long hours and having to make decisions about attending the most serious of incidents because they simply can’t get to everything. Private ambulances are available in Co Cavan but are not being alerted to incidents when they happen.”

Cllr Trevor Smith (FG) then offered his full support to Cllr Brady’s motion. He added: “There are issues in my area with ambulance times especially when it comes to cardiac cases. I just can’t understand why the local fire crew who are well trained in CPR weren’t deployed in these incidents.”