A woman has been taken to hospital after being left waiting on the roadside for over three hours for an ambulance following a road traffic collision in West Clare this morning.
An air ambulance was eventually sent to the scene from Co Cork by which time a road ambulance had become available and was also dispatched. It was almost four hours after the incident occurred before the woman was finally transported to hospital by road.
Emergency services received a report of a single-vehicle road traffic collision near Doonbeg at around 11.30am today. It’s understood that a car collided with a ditch and crossed the road before coming to a stop.
Units of Clare County Fire and Rescue Service from Kilkee station responded to the incident along with Gardaí. While the National Ambulance Service (NAS) was also alerted at the same time, they had no resource available to respond to the scene.
Fire crews remained with the woman for almost three hours before the HSE’s Cork based Emergency Aeromedical Service (EAS) air ambulance, Aeromed 01, was finally dispatched to the scene. In the meantime, a road ambulance became available and also responded to the incident.
The woman was assessed at the scene and was found not to have been seriously injured. It was decided that she would travel to hospital by road. The air ambulance was stood down and cleared to return to its base at Rathcoole Aerodrome.
A spokesperson for the HSE said: “The HSE 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.”
West Clare Councillor Rita McInerney has expressed concern at the shocking delay in ambulance response
Cllr McInerney said: “We in West Clare pay the same taxes as everyone else in this country, yet we are forced to tolerate an inadequate standard of emergency care. Furthermore, any incident in West Clare is exasperated by our isolation so when the ambulance does depart, they have the arduous journey to University Hospital Limerick on what is a substandard road network.”
Cllr McInerney is calling on the Minister for Health, HSE senior management, and Government representatives to urgently sit down and sort out the chronic under-resourcing of the National Ambulance Service in Clare.
“The people of West Clare are being put in danger every single day by a under resourced, underfunded, and neglected health emergency system. This isn’t politics—it’s people’s lives,” she said.
Meanwhile, a woman was airlifted to hospital this morning following an accident involving a tractor also in Co Clare. The incident occurred at around 7.30am on a farm near Inagh.
It’s understood that the woman sustained serious crush injuries after a tractor rolled over her. It’s also believed she managed to call emergency services herself.
Two ambulances and a paramedic response vehicle were dispatched by the National Ambulance Service while units of Clare County Fire and Rescue Service from Ennis station were also mobilised along with Gardaí.
The Cork-based air ambulance was also dispatched to this incident. The woman was later airlifted to University Hospital Galway where she is receiving treatment for serious injuries.