Ambulance Service apologises following Roscommon death

The Ambulance Service has apologised to the family of a 19-year-old girl, who died after she was taken to hospital via an indirect route.

Elaine Curley from Creggs in Co Roscommon died on the two hour journey from the scene of a car crash which should have taken around an hour and 20 minutes.

A local person directed the ambulance down a bog road and it was also diverted from Portiuncula Hospital in Galway to UCHG, which added extra time.

Local TD Denis Naughten says the Curley family want to highlight how difficult it is for people in Roscommon to get emergency treatment following the closure of Roscommon A&E: "She passed by the front door of two hospitals on the way to Galway and the reason that the ambulance took that route was obviously because they felt that Portiuncla was the place to bring her but they couldn't take trauma patients and she had to transfer on to Galway University Hospital