Wide-spread concerns have been voiced on the Isle of Wight after it became known that young child, whose leg had been broken after a car collided with him in Ryde, couldn’t get an IW ambulance to attend to him for over 50 minutes.
Helicopter had to come from Southampton
Instead, after this time, a helicopter had to be scrambled from Southampton.
On The Wight spoke to an eye witness, Sandi Harris, who said that they first called 999 to get medical attention for the young lad after he had been hit by a car in Ryde.
The Police arrived relatively quickly, but after nearly an hour, with the ambulance not arrived, they called 999 again, waiting three minutes to speak to the ambulance service.
Isle of Wight ambulance still unavailable
As no Isle of Wight ambulance was still available, a helicopter was sent from Southampton, landing in Ryde school’s playing fields. The medics on board had to run on foot from their landing spot to the young child.
Mrs Harris described how an Island ambulance arrived later, and it was understood to have been driven by a Police officer, not an ambulance driver.
Several people asked the Policeman why no ambulance was available. His response was “Ask the Government.”
Wide-spread concern
There are wide-spread concerns on the Social networks, with a shared-question: “What would have happened if the lad’s condition had been life threatening?”
Our interview with the eye-witness
[audio:http://onthewight.com/wp-content/2012/09/s-harris-ryde-3yo-no-ambulance.mp3]
UPDATE
Response from Isle of Wight NHS Trust
This in from the Isle of Wight NHS Trust, in their own words -Ed
Isle of Wight Ambulance service were assisted by both Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance and Hampshire Constabulary today when the number of life threatening emergency calls to the Island’s ambulance service hit a peak.
At 11:40hrs this morning the Island’s Ambulance service were alerted that a 5 year old boy had run into the road in Ryde and had been hit by a car. Unfortunately all five emergency ambulances and the rapid response car (six vehicles in all for the Island) were engaged on life threatening emergencies – incidents where the patient is unconscious and not breathing. As a result the Air Ambulance was scrambled and at 12:05 was on route from Thruxton to the Island where it landed in the grounds at Ryde School.
Hampshire Constabulary Officers assisted the air ambulance paramedics by transferring them by car from Ryde School to the scene. However when it became apparent that the Island’s ambulances were still all engaged in life threatening emergencies elsewhere and that Hampshire Constabulary were unable to transfer the child in their vehicle to the air ambulance, it was agreed that Police officers would collect an ambulance from the St. Mary’s Hospital site to enable the air ambulance paramedics to assist with a road transfer to St. Mary’s.
Chief Ambulance Officer for the Island, Chris Smith, said: “We’re extremely sorry that this child had to wait for an ambulance but regrettably all six of our vehicles were deployed on life threatening incidents elsewhere and whilst accepting the delay occurred the child’s condition was closely monitored by our Clinical support desk team who had ascertained the child’s injury were none life threatening and lower leg trauma related and were able to monitor the incident on CCTV from our emergency call centre on the Island. That is why we called the Air Ambulance to assist with this incident. We are grateful to the Air Ambulance and Hampshire Constabulary officers for assisting us with this incident which shows great collaboration when required.
“Five emergency ambulances and one rapid response car are the normal ambulance resources available on the Island for emergency calls during the day on a Sunday. It is unusual for all six to be involved in life threatening emergencies at the same time. Unlike the mainland where ambulance services are able to call on a neighbouring service for assistance, the Island’s Ambulance Service has to call on the Air Ambulance to assist when all other resources are already deployed.”
Thanks to Carmelle James, Carrie-Anne Lane and Linda Bassett for letting us know about this.
