Woman watched mother dying on the floor for four hours as she waited for ambulance, Ireland's health minister told

A woman spent “four hours watching her mother dying on the floor waiting for an ambulance in a journey that should take just ten minutes”, the Irish Oireachtas Health Committee was told today.

Committee deputy chairman Sean Crowe said the “woman died on her way to hospital”.

Her bereaved daughter was left with the memory of her mother “gasping for breath”, he told Health Minister Stephen Donnelly.

He said ambulance delays, compounded by them having to wait backed up for hours outside hospitals because of a lack of trolleys in emergency departments, were leading to serious consequences.

In response the minister said: “The national ambulance service needs significant additional funding and that is happening now.”

He said there is work under way to rebuild ambulance bases as well as add to the fleet, along with hiring more advanced paramedics.

He added: “We need to recognise response times from ambulances are not where they need to be and vary around the country. It is not yet where it needs to be and some areas are worse than others.”

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Source: Independent Ireland, 30 November 2022