Woman dies while waiting for ambulance to travel from Belfast to Newry

A woman in her 30s has died in Newry while waiting for an ambulance crew to arrive from Belfast.

The Northern Ireland Ambulance Service (NIAS) said it regrets that its level of service fell below what was “planned and anticipated” in the early hours of Sunday.

It is understood that the ambulance service received a call at approximately 3.30am on Sunday to say that a woman had collapsed in Newry, Co Down.

There were only three emergency crews in the Southern division area available at the start of the night shift, instead of the planned resource of 10 crews.

This was reduced to two crews when one ambulance worker fell ill.

At the time the emergency call was received, both of the crews were at Craigavon hospital handing over patients.

A crew was instead sent from Belfast, 38 miles away.

The woman died before the ambulance arrived.

An NIAS spokesperson said: “The Northern Ireland Ambulance Service would like to apologise sincerely and offer our condolences to the family and friends of the patient, in Newry, who passed away in the early hours of Sunday April 10 while awaiting the arrival of an ambulance which was despatched from Belfast.

“NIAS regrets that, on the evening of Saturday April 9, levels of ambulance cover fell below those which had been planned and anticipated, with the Southern division particularly impacted.

“The planned level of resource in Southern division on Saturday night is 10.

“On Saturday night only three crews were available at the commencement of the shift and this was further depleted by one due to onset of illness.

“Both remaining crews were not available to respond as they were waiting to handover patients at Craigavon ED.

“As NIAS manages the service on a regional basis with the closest available ambulance responding to the next most clinically urgent call, crews from other divisions will have responded to calls in the Southern division.”

The spokesperson added: “NIAS had three A&E support crews and one independent ambulance crew available to complement the emergency crews.

“A&E support and independent crews are despatched to lower acuity calls to protect the A&E resource for the most serious and urgent waiting calls.

“NIAS would further apologise to all patients and their carers for any delays experienced as a result of reduced cover.”