Woman waits nearly an hour for ambulance after collapsing minutes from Cork hospital

The woman regained consciousness before the paramedics arrived. They checked her vitals and took her to MUH for assessment.

A woman in her 80s was left waiting almost 50 minutes for an ambulance after she collapsed in an arts venue in Cork City.

The paramedics tasked to the incident at the Triskel had to drive from Millstreet, about 50kms away, to treat the woman. Tony Sheehan, Triskel's artistic director, praised them for their compassion and professionalism when they finally arrived.

But he said he was shocked an elderly person in need of medical attention had to wait for almost an hour for an ambulance.

“It’s a city centre venue. 

It was a Monday night, a fairly quiet night usually in the city centre and still it took almost an hour for an ambulance to arrive. 

So if it was like that on Monday, what’s it like at weekends? It’s just not acceptable,” he said. 

The incident began to unfold at the Triskel on Tobin St shortly after 8pm on Monday. The woman and her two daughters were among some 140 people at a screening of the Pat Collins’ film, ‘That They May Face The Rising Sun’, when she collapsed about 10 minutes into the film.

One of her daughters raised the alarm. Mr Sheehan said they were concerned she was having a stroke so he dialled 999, and requested an ambulance urgently.

Mr Sheehan said onlookers helped, that people were patient and kind, but the woman needed paramedics and an ambulance.

“The Mercy University Hospital (MUH) is just three minutes away, so we had to decide ‘do we move the woman and take her to MUH, or do we wait for the ambulance?," he said.

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“It looked serious, the woman had collapsed so we decided to call in the experts.” 

The woman regained consciousness before the paramedics arrived. They checked her vitals and took her to MUH for assessment.

Green Party Cllr Dan Boyle, chair of the city council’s arts committee, described the wait time as "disturbing".

“As a representative for this area, I want to see more people living in the city centre, and more active use of its services and facilities, but when that level of ambulance cover is what’s provided on a Monday night, it’s deeply worrying. It’s just not an acceptable level of service,” he said. 

He plans to raise the issue with his party colleagues in government and with the HSE directly. 

In a statement, the HSE said it cannot comment on individual cases when to do so might reveal information in relation to identifiable individuals, “breaching the ethical requirement on us to observe our duty of confidentiality”.