Pensioner has 90-minute wait for ambulance

Pensioner has 90-minute wait for ambulance

18 March 2015

A 90 year-old woman who fell and broke her hip faced a painful wait on a cold pavement for over an hour before an ambulance arrived, it has emerged.

Mrs Agnes Sharvin, a former nurse and midwife, fell close to her home in Strangford last Saturday afternoon after tripping on a short walk to the shops. Local people who went to her aid claimed it was 90 minutes before an ambulance arrived to take her to hospital.

Mrs Sharvin’s son Barry has thanked local people who stopped and did their best to keep her warm before he got to the scene. He said he feared what would have happened to her in bad weather.

“Thank God it was dry,” he said. “Thank God it was not raining.

“She had smashed her hip. She was freezing and local people had wrapped her in blankets and hot water bottles and did their best to keep her warm.”

Mr Sharvin, who is the principal of De La Salle School in Downpatrick, said it was an unacceptable wait.

“When I found her cold it annoyed me,” he said.

“Her temperature had really ped, but she was just keen to say what good neighbours she had.

“The first ambulance response came in an hour in a car but they could not move her and we had to wait on the ambulance. She had to lie on the cold ground. She had also hurt her hand.”

Mr. Sharvin said his mother’s experience was ironic considering her own dedicated healthcare background.

“She used to be a district nurse and a midwife and from a young young age she would have been around the Mourne mountains delivering babies,” he said.

“I’m not sure if her background helped keep her calm because she is a calm person anyway.”

Mrs. Sharvin celebrates her 90th birthday today in the Ulster Hospital. Her family have refused a respite care place in Dundonald and say they want her closer to home in the Downe Hospital.

Mrs. Sharvin’s case follows a number of concerns raised about ambulance delays locally in the light of reduced opening hours at the Downe A&E. The casualty department has been closed at weekends and from 8pm on weekdays since January of last year. Lagan Valley Hospital in Lisburn also had its emergency hours cut, with a shortage of qualified emergency doctors blamed in both cases.

One of the most recent concerns involved the treatment of a baby girl who suffered a heart attack at the GP surgery at the Downe Hospital and had to wait around 40 minutes for an ambulance to be transported to hospital. Due to local crews being engaged on other calls, the ambulance came from Lisburn.

Eamonn McGrady, chairman of the Down Community Health Committee, said Mrs. Sharvin’s case provided further worrying evidence.

“This incident raises serious questions about ambulance cover in the area generally, and at weekends in particular,” he said. “There is an issue with ambulance provision in the district and across the whole of Northern Ireland.

“We have all heard anecdotally waiting concerns around ambulances. This particular circumstance raised serious concerns. I believe it to be one of the worst delay wise.

“The community will always try to help in these circumstances and it just goes to show how strong the sense of community is here but people should not be put in that position.

“Strangford is not the most isolated part of Down District and Saturday morning is not the busiest time. It raises fundamental questions which must be answered by the Health Minister.”

Jon McPoland, of the Ambulance Service, apologised for the delay and said the crew had been responding to other emergency activity in the area.

In response to local reports that Mrs. Sharvin had been waiting for an hour and a half on an ambulance, he said the service had sent an ambulance within an hour and nine minutes of the 999 call.

Mr. McPoland said the first call  at 12.34pm reported a hand injury involving an 80 year-old woman but when a second call came at 13.05pm reporting the hip injury and her falling temperature, he said the call was “upgraded accordingly”.

“A rapid response vehicle was dispatched immediately followed shortly by an A&E crew who took her to the Ulster Hospital in Dundonald,” he said. “The Ambulance Service would like to apologise for any delay in responding to this call.”