Signing the petition for a better ambulance service in the Gorey district on the Main Street. Pic: Christy Farrell.

Ambulance cover in North Wexford is at crisis point and calls for 24/7 cover has intensified throughout the community after a woman fell into a coma while awaiting the arrival of an ambulance, which took almost three hours and had travelled from Carlow.

The middle-aged woman, whose family has asked that she remain anonymous, became ill at her home in a rural part of Wexford, near the Wicklow Gap, and a 999 call was made to the ambulance control centre in Wexford.

All ambulances were out of the area and the service was extremely busy at the time, however, the woman’s condition deteriorated and family members felt that her health was at serious risk.

Following a wait of between two to three hours on a Friday evening one eventually could be found which had to come from Carlow.

Thankfully, the woman has made a good recovery, but was diagnosed with a health condition that she didn’t know she had.

Ambulance services in Gorey share night and weekend services with Enniscorthy and New Ross, and frequently, any of the three areas can be left without ambulance cover for long periods of time.

Local representative, Cllr Fionntán Ó Súilleabháin has said that lives are being put at risk by an ambulance service that is understaffed, under pressure and unable to provide adequate services.

“This reckless neglect of people living in outlying areas by the HSE will have to stop,” said Cllr Ó Suilleabháin, who continued; “We’ve got to force them to act by whatever means necessary before more lives are lost. It could be anybody’s family member next.”

The level of service in Co. Wexford was the focus of an RTE Prime Time investigation earlier this year which indicated a life-threatening absence of available ambulances.

Full story in this week’s edition of THE GOREY ECHO.