A 76 year old Waterford City woman waited in agony with a broken hip and wrist as it took three and a half hours for an ambulance to arrive.
The poor woman suffered a fall in her back garden recently, around 9.30 pm. She lay there until nearly 1.00 am waiting on an ambulance. Her family and neighbours were afraid to move her lest they cause more damage.
Her daughter spoke The Munster Express about the ordeal but asked that her mother’s request for privacy be respected.
“I will never ever forget the screams of that woman for as long as live,” her daughter explained. “Please help me, please help me. I will never forget it.
Disgraceful
“I think it’s absolutely disgraceful that the emergency services are stretched so far that they can’t make a 76-year-old woman a priority,” the woman’s daughter added.
From the outset the daughter of the injured lady wanted to stress that she did not blame the paramedics or the ambulance service. She believed that this was an issue with a system that could allow a woman in her seventies to be stuck on the ground in agony for hours, even though she lives only a short journey from UHW.
“We knew her hip was broke straight away,” she explained. “Her leg was at an angle and we could see her wrist was broken too. At one stage she was trying to get sick and we were afraid even if she did, we still couldn’t move her.
“I think the pain in her hip was that bad she didn’t even know herself that the wrist was broken. She had to have surgery afterwards and spent a week in high dependency.”
The lady’s daughter explained that her mother remains an in-patient, weeks later, but will return home as soon as she is capable.
The delay in the ambulance response was first highlighted by Cllr Joeanne Bailey at the June Plenary meeting of Waterford City and County Council.
She highlighted the woman’s case and asked for Mayor Seamus Ryan to write to the Minister of Health regarding delays with Waterford’s ambulances.
“After speaking with my council colleagues in the City and County there appears to be a rise in wait times in receiving an ambulance from University Hospital Waterford,” Cllr. Bailey said.
“I would like you [Mayor Seamus Ryan] to inform the minister of our concerns and ask him to investigate the number of ambulances we have across city and county. Could you request some information around the service, how many units are available at any one time, how long is the average wait time etc?”
She then went on to describe the suffering of this 76 year old lady. Speaking to The Munster Express after the meeting, Cllr. Bailey said: “I was heartbroken to hear that story from a constituent recently”.
“It is shocking that a 76-year-old woman would have to wait over three hours for an ambulance. She was in pain and her family could not move her. From hearing this story, I contacted Deputy Cullinane to see if he would find out what was the delay on the night in question.
“If there is a shortage of ambulances in Waterford I want action now, people of Waterford shouldn’t be waiting,” Cllr. Bailey said.
Mayor Seamus Ryan agreed to write a letter to the Minister of Health.
The fire service
Eventually, after many calls, the emergency service operator suggested that they contact the fire brigade for assistance.
The lady’s daughter could not praise the fire service enough for their response. After receiving the call, two engines from the Waterford Fire Service attended the house. Their presence was a great relief to the injured woman and he family.
One of the firemen stayed on the ground talking to the injured lady until the paramedics arrived.
“I couldn’t thank the firemen enough. They stayed the entire time, they didn’t leave. We felt so at ease that at least they had training for this. Even the firemen were getting on the phone trying to get an ambulance for us.”
The lady’s daughter went on to explain that the paramedics themselves were not to blame. Even when they attended A&E, which was extremely busy, they saw the same paramedics dropping off new patients through the night.
“The paramedics were lovely; they couldn’t apologise enough but it wasn’t their fault … I think the ambulance had to come from Dungarvan in the end. The entire system is an absolute shambles.”
Issues in the ambulance service
There are ongoing problems in the National Ambulance Service in Ireland. Just last month Ambulance Service employees staged a protest outside UHW, as they highlighted working conditions which they say make it difficult for them to do their jobs as they once did.
Sean Wade, Senior member of the National Ambulance Service who works in Waterford, spoke to The Munster Express at the protest and explained some problems that increase wait times, and may have the potential to create traumatising experiences like the one this poor woman was subjected to.
“The job is getting harder and harder in that we literally do not have enough crews on the road,” he explained.
“There has been a lack of government support down through the years in getting the correct number of staff on the road. The CEO of the National ambulance service has pointed out in various Dáil committees that our numbers need to be up around the 3,000 mark, and we are way off that.”
A government statement updated in 2025 claims there are over 2,300 staff in the NAS.
It was explained during the strike that shortages mean ambulance service members are often expected to provide cover across the country. This results in Waterford ambulances being sent to places like Cork, as 12 hour shifts regularly become 13 or 14 hour shifts with little notice.
Last month, The Munster Express reported on Waterford ambulances being sent to Laois to provide cover.
AARON KENT
Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme
