Ambulance with seriously ill patient clamped at airport

AN ambulance crew carrying a patient to hospital from Dublin Airport had to wait 20 minutes while a clamp was removed, it emerged yesterday.

Members of the airport police, employees of the Dublin Airport Authority, at no stage asked about the condition of the patient, according to the owner of the private ambulance company.

The ambulance was parked at an arrival bay on Saturday waiting for a man who had fallen seriously ill during a skiing holiday when it was clamped.

The airport police refused to take a credit card or the word of the company that the fee would be paid. One of the crew had to rush in to the arrivals and use his own bank card to add to the e40 his colleague had in his pocket.

The e63 had to be paid in to a parking machine, then the receipt brought back down to the airport police. In all, it took about 20 minutes for the clamp to be removed. The patient, who was in his 30s, was then taken to Beaumont Hospital.

David Hall, who runs Life Line, the Co Kildare-based ambulance company, said: "The problem here is that individual details were not taken in to consideration. They did not ask about the patient's condition."

He was an acute admission, sick enough to be interrupting his holiday to come back, said Mr Hall.

The airport authority apologised for the incident, described it as "very unfortunate" and one that will not happen again.

Spokeswoman Siobhán Moore said the procedure is that the ambulance goes to short-term parking and waits while a crew member collects the patient. He or she should then radio the driver to proceed to arrivals. The emergency bay is for life and death situations, the airport authority maintains.

However, Mr Hall said he had not heard of this procedure. The authority wants to clear up the confusion at a meeting between Mr Hall and the chief of the airport police on Thursday.

Stephen McMahon, of the Irish Patients' Association, said he was "absolutely shocked" to hear of a clamp being placed on an ambulance in use by a crew on legitimate business.

He said no emergency vehicle should ever be clamped. "A simple pain could be the signal for an acute episode," he said.