2.5hr wait for an ambulance for critical incident.

I was at a incident months ago an ambulance was called it was not needed. 1 o clock in the morning eg no one was hurt or in danger or in a serious medical danger , if there's a limited no of ambulances there needs to be a system of sending ambulances out to the most urgent serious incidents

I saw an incident today a man lying on the ground beside a car sitting up talking to medics there was a fire brigade and an ambulance there it looked as if he was knocked down by a car he was sitting on the ground talking to the medics

The problem I see is in your case if they get a report a man collapsed they don't know how serious it is until a medic gets to examine the patient

people can blackout due to many reasons which can minor or due to a serious health condition eg someone forgot to talk their medication

When someone calls 999 they may not know how serious the situation is unless they are up to date with the specific health status of the person who collapsed

It can also depend on what info was reported to the emergency service when the 999 call was made

There's probably alot more 999 calls made

after 9 pm when people go out to pubs people get into fights or they drink to excess versus daytime calls to 999

Someone who lives in a rural area is likely going to be waiting longer than say someone who lives in a city closer to hospitals and emergency services

It also depends on the age of the person who blacked out eg did they have a pre existing medical condition which would make them vulnerable to serious medical issues if they were to collapse

The HSE headcount is rising all the time.

Added 2,000 doctors since Dec 2019.

Thousands more nurses.

90 something lady in rural area falls and cant get up , one ambo about 40 mins wait time

40s very drunk man falls outside puband hits head one ambo 90 mins wait time

18 year ld cocaine OD two ambo plus AP car about 20 min

all last night , ambulance base withing 2 km of each a call

maybe we need to look at how we use the resources we have

Ambulance service like Gardai and in some areas Fire service aren't up to their nuts or chins anymore , they are already underwater holding their breath waiting for the inevitable collapse .

If your want some one to blame look to the excessive and bloted admin and the interference by upper political management who have no experience in what is actually required to run these services

I'll get shot down for this probably but sure here goes..

I was in St Vincent's ER a few months ago for a kidney stone..bloody worst pain ever..the amount of ambulances that came in with elderly,mostly ladies, strapped into a stretcher yapping and chatting away to the paramedics was beyond belief. I mean the "patients"looked genuinely thrilled to be the center of attention and have someone to talk with..not one looked or sounded like they needed to be carried around in an ambulance..it was nearly like a social outing for them.

Yes there are plenty of elderly emergencies but not one of these warranted an ambulance as far as I could see!

Probably to meet an advanced paramedic in the other one. Some medication can only be administered by an AP.

This has been a known problem for years. The paramedics have to wait until there is a bed available for the patient. It's a bed capacity issue as always.

Ambulance turnaround times exceed an hour at Cork and Kerry hospitals (irishexaminer.com)

Ambulances are waiting 52 minutes on average at hospitals across Ireland before being able to declare themselves ready to accept another call, an increase of almost 10 minutes on the previous year.

Ambulance turnaround times involve the amount of time from the ambulance arrival time to when the crew declares the readiness of the ambulance to accept another call.

When you ring 999 for an ambulance, do they ask for your eircode? How do they get directions to your house?

How is it then that service delivery just seems to get worse and worse.

Sorry to hear about your brother. I had similar experience back in Nov, had a heart attack 1pm at home taking in shopping. ended up on the ground in hallway, wife called 999, took 20 mins for a first responder to arrive, a further hour for an ambulance to arrive. All the ecg that were done on me in the hall didn't show signs of heart attack, atypical view that indicated influenza, medics thought covid related. Got to hospital in drogheda around 3pm, wasnt seen by a doctor till midnight, was getting annoyed and going to head home. Head nurse on duty indicated i should wait, she counldnt say why but something in her face made me wait. Blood test revealed i had a bad heart attack, no covid and rolled up to coronary care right after.

The first responder and ambulance were late due to shortages from covid illness with first responders being out of work and for the ambulance crew was due to being held up in a&e, massive queue due to shutting down of Navan a&e. As for hospital, ususal story of overworked, understaffed. Im very greatful for the care i did get from all involved, i dont blame the medics/hospital staff at all, however the services are woefully mismanaged,too many pencil pushers and not enough investment in training, staff wages etc. The government and HSE management are absolutely useless, anything more id like to say about them would probably result in a ban.

What a horrible experience. Ten minutes already feels like an hour when you’re under such stress.

I don’t know if it’s been said that ambulances must wait with a patient outside the hospital if there’s no capacity in A&E. I’ve heard stories of ambulances sitting, waiting, for hours. So under-supply in hospitals leads to an under-supply of ambulances.

As with all these stories, I see someone is in quickly to say that paramedics do sterling work. Clap for Our Carers. That is no doubt true but it’s also true that in any organisation there are staff who don’t work as hard as others and who are resistant to change. Hospital workers do sterling work, too, but they are also one of the principal impediments to reforms that are in the interests of everybody.

Not enough consultant decision-makers at weekends, therefore ED clogged up, therefore ambulances waiting outside ED for an hour waiting to unload.

Consultants devoting more time to private work, as that is the incentives they face.

Patients in ED who should not be there.

And so so, and so on, nothing ever changes......................

Consultants don't decide how many consultant decision makers are present at weekends. They don't do the rosters. Are you expecting them to do voluntary work?

Do you have any information that consultants are not doing their contracted hours within the public service?

And where do the trade unions come into this?