NI health crisis: Elderly woman in four-hour ambulance wait

The nephew of a woman in her 80s who waited four hours outside for an ambulance has said the health system was "broken".

Sheila McCormick, 83, fell on the Glen Road in Belfast on Monday afternoon.

The NI Ambulance Service (NIAS) apologised to anyone who feels they had not received the standard of care expected.

Meanwhile, a County Down father said he was angry after being unable to get an ambulance for his son.

Robert Miskimmin, 74, said he was advised to bring his son, 50, to the hospital himself when he called 999 on Monday night.

His son had called him for help after experiencing severe chest pain.

The NIAS uses an internationally-recognised triage system and call handlers are trained to determine the category of the call and the level of response needed.

Ms McCormick was helped by bystanders who tried to make her as comfortable as possible after she fell.

An ambulance call was made at 16:15 BST, but help did not arrive until 20:30.

Her nephew Declan Hill told BBC News NI that it was a source of much distress.

"When you can do nothing and it's your 83-year-old aunt," he said.

"Sheila is the last of that generation in our family and to see my aunty lying on the ground made me angry.

"I want the authorities to admit, or the politicians to admit, that the system is broken and let's see how we're going to fix it."

Mr Miskimmin, from Conlig, County Down, said that while his son did not have a heart attack, he still felt angry at being left to cope.

"He was in extreme pain. He was very distressed," he told BBC's Good Morning Ulster programme.

"I asked him what the problem was. He told me he had severe pains in the centre of his chest. I immediately rang 999."

The call operator spoke to his son about his symptoms.

When no ambulance came, Mr Miskimmin rang and spoke to the same call handler.

"She said: 'I'm sorry you won't have an ambulance. The ambulances are all occupied at Dundonald. There are no ambulances available.'

"I said: 'Look this gentleman may die. I don't know. It appears to me that he is having a heart attack.'

"Fortunately he wasn't as it turned out but that was my impression."

Mr Miskimmin said the operator apologised and told him: "You know the way the health service is. We don't have anything at our disposal."

His son was taken by car to the Ulster Hospital where he was triaged immediately and, his father said, received "the best of attention".

He added: "I felt really angry that we should be left - not only for myself and my son, but for other elderly people who may be living on their own, who may not have family near who may be in distress and requesting medical help and that help is not available," he said.

"I think that is a very sad and tragic situation for anyone to be in.

There are cases just like this one every day. Sadly it's not rare. It reflects a healthcare system that is fraying at the seams.

A paramedic told me last night that it is - in his words - normal to find elderly people lying on the floor, perhaps for four to six hours, waiting for an ambulance to arrive.

Ambulance crews are also losing so much time waiting to drop off patients. I'm told that they are regularly spending five hours outside a hospital and eight to 12 hours is not unheard of.

Robert Miskimmin explained how disheartened he was, how sad and frightening it was.

He said that time after time we've been told the health service needs reformed and it is not being reformed because of what appears to be political reluctance to do so.

It cited the impact of staff absences due to Covid-19 and turnaround times at hospital emergency departments where patients have to wait and even be treated in ambulances outside the building.

"NIAS will prioritise calls to the service based on clinical need with greatest priority given to those patients whose conditions are immediately life threatening and who may not be conscious or who may not be breathing," the statement said.

"At times of extreme pressure, we will advise callers that some calls may have to wait much longer than we would like or that they would expect.

"On occasion we may ask the caller, where it is deemed clinically appropriate, if it is possible for the patient to be brought to hospital by means other than by ambulance.

"If this is possible, the caller is always advised to phone back should the patient's condition change. If it is not possible to provide other transport the call will be responded to by ambulance, based on clinical need and ambulance availability."