Elderly patient waited four hours with broken hip due to ambulance delays

'You have the example of an elderly [patient] lying on the floor for four plus hours because they rang an ambulance at 3.15 and we’re not getting to them till four and half hours later,' Siptu ambulance sector president Greg Lyons said. Picture: Denis Minihane

An elderly patient in the South-West waited over four hours with a broken hip for an ambulance as high patient numbers led to delays.

New data from the HSE and Health Protection Surveillance Centre shows 414 people were hospitalised with the flu, among 1,628 cases during the first week of January. This is nearly double the numbers recorded the week before Christmas.

Covid-19 also continues to affect people, with 1,200 cases recorded and 459 of them needing hospital care; the highest number of weekly cases since August.

While cases of RSV remained lower than the peak last month, some 465 cases were reported, of whom 147 were hospitalised.

Paramedics listed long delays at overcrowded hospitals this week in messages to Siptu ambulance sector president Greg Lyons on Wednesday.

Paramedics are required to wait with patients until they are handed over to hospital staff when there is room.

One crew waited 4.5 hours at a Galway hospital, another over six hours at Wexford General Hospital, and another 8.4 hours in Letterkenny.

Critical measures in place for the first time this winter prevented a repeat of the crisis seen in the opening days of 2023, with staff across the health service committed to the change.

However, Mr Lyons said: “It is starting to surge again.

“The delays are going from a standard 20 to 40 minutes which you would find acceptable up into the four to six-hour mark.” 

A paramedic crew typically works a 12-hour shift, meaning some are spending much of that time in hospitals instead of out on the roads, he explained.

“The biggest risk we have is the patient we don’t get to because the patients we get to are in very capable hands of our ambulance professionals,” Mr Lyons said.

He described a message from the South-West region, saying: “You have the example of an elderly [patient] lying on the floor for four plus hours because they rang an ambulance at 3.15 and we’re not getting to them till four and half hours later.” 

The handover list for one under-pressure hospital on Wednesday showed one ambulance waiting four and half hours while another had waited just over five and half hours.

Ambulances 'an extra ward'

Mr Lyons said hospitals are under such pressure ambulances are seen as “an extra ward”, adding: “That’s no offence to the hospital staff, but the issue we have is when we get there, there isn’t a massive priority for them to take our patients because they are swamped.” 

These delays are out of the control of the ambulance service, he said, saying more staff were recruited during the last two years than ever.

He welcomed the changes this winter, saying: “Coming up to Christmas from October, things were moving on, they weren’t so bad. But in the Christmas season, we’ve seen delays, and they continued last week and into this week.” 

Mr Lyons called for these changes to be developed, particularly the Pathfinder programme which allows paramedics to assess 999 callers for care other than an emergency department.

“It’s a fantastic service but it needs to be expanded,” he said.

“It’s not in every hospital, it’s restricted to people over the age of 65, they only attend two or three different type category calls.” 

The HSE called on people with respiratory symptoms to stay at home until 48 hours after symptoms are mostly gone and to seek help if these become worse as well as urging vaccination.