An elderly man who fell and hit his head on a pavement outside a nursing home was left waiting two hours for an ambulance - despite the accident happening just five minutes away from a hospital.
The man, in his late 80s, fell outside the entrance to the Farranlea Nursing Home on Farranlea Road in Cork city, where he is a resident.
Passers-by and staff from the nursing home stayed with the man and looked after them while he waited two hours for an ambulance to arrive, Cork Beo reports.
Those who were helping the man said that they did not want to move him as he had a substantial head injury and they were afraid that he may also have injured his neck.
The man fell around 2pm and was waiting until 4pm for an ambulance - even though Cork University Hospital (CUH) is only five minutes from Farranlea Road.
Caroline McCarthy was walking with her family when they came across the man and she spoke to Patricia Messenger on C103’s Cork Today Show about the incident.
She said: “We rang for an ambulance and were told that one was on the way however we then rang CUH directly after no ambulance arrived.
"They told us that they had five ambulances at their Emergency Department door but they just did not have the staff to deal with the demand.
"It wasn’t their fault, the woman on the phone was very helpful - they just didn’t have the resources to deal with it”.
The man was conscious throughout the ordeal and kept asking those around him when the ambulance was coming.
Meanwhile residents of the nursing home were looking out the window at the scene and were said to be distressed.
The man was eventually taken to hospital where he was treated for his injuries.
