Northern Ireland Ambulance Service Apologizes After Patient Waits 10 Hours for Care

The Northern Ireland Ambulance Service (NIAS) has issued an apology after a 74-year-old woman with Parkinson’s disease waited 10 hours for an ambulance following a fall at her home. The incident has highlighted the severe pressures currently facing emergency medical services and the critical impact of hospital handover delays on patient care.

Incident Details: A 10-Hour Wait in Agony

The patient, Irene Lowry, suffered a fall at approximately 15:00 BST on a Tuesday, resulting in a fractured shoulder. Her daughter, Julie Mayo, contacted the ambulance service at 15:25 to request urgent assistance, reporting that her mother was in extreme agony and screaming due to her injuries.

Despite multiple follow-up calls—including one at 18:00 where the call was upgraded and another at 22:10—the ambulance service was unable to provide a specific arrival time. Due to the severity of the pain and her Parkinson’s disease, which prevents her from lying still, Ms. Lowry eventually managed to move herself onto a sofa with great difficulty. The ambulance did not arrive until just after 01:00 the following morning.

“It’s just awful, it was just horrendous to hear your mother lying screaming and yelling out for help,” Julie Mayo told the BBC.

NIAS Response and Systemic Pressures

A spokesperson for the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service acknowledged the failure to provide a timely response, stating, “We would have liked to have provided a much quicker response but were prevented from doing so because of circumstances beyond our control.”

The NIAS attributed the delay to “high levels of pressure” within the system. The service specifically cited two primary factors contributing to reduced ambulance availability:

• Delayed Hospital Handovers: When ambulances are held up at hospitals while waiting to transfer patients, they cannot return to the field to answer new calls.
• Reduced Availability: General systemic pressures that limit the number of crews available to respond to emergency calls.

Current Patient Status

Following the 10-hour wait, Irene Lowry was transported to Antrim Area Hospital. Reports indicate she is currently awaiting a transfer to the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast for further care. While Julie Mayo commended the individual ambulance staff for their work under challenging circumstances, she emphasized that such a delay “should never happen.”

Key Takeaways

• Patient Impact: A 74-year-old with Parkinson’s suffered a fractured shoulder and waited 10 hours for emergency care.
• Systemic Failure: NIAS cited hospital handover delays and high system pressure as the cause for the delayed response.
• Medical Complications: The patient’s pre-existing condition (Parkinson’s) exacerbated the distress of the wait, as she was unable to remain still despite the injury.
• Official Stance: The NIAS has issued an apology for the incident.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why do hospital handovers affect ambulance wait times?

When an ambulance crew is unable to hand over a patient to the hospital staff promptly, the vehicle and crew remain stationary at the hospital. This removes that ambulance from the active fleet, reducing the number of available units to respond to other emergency calls in the community.

What happened to the patient after the ambulance arrived?

The patient was taken to Antrim Area Hospital and is waiting to be moved to the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast.