Local police and residents had to wait for two hours for an ambulance to respond to an emergency call on Saturday morning when a 77 year old German lady collapsed in a diabetic coma in the La Florida area of the Orihuela Costa.
The delay occurred, it is said, because of confusion over the address, which was recorded as being la calle Acuario, of which there are two in the region. It is understood however, that at the time of the call an ambulance was not available to respond.
When the vehicle finally arrived it was manned only by auxiliary staff who had to be helped by local residents.
The incident occurred at about 10:45 on Saturday when a neighbor noticed through a window that the German lady was lying unconscious inside her lounge. It was initially thought that she had died but on gaining access through the window firefighters found her to be unconscious but still breathing.
The fire service officers again called the emergency coordination centre but it was 12.45 before there was any response.
This was a matter highlighted by The Leader in March, after we got unofficial advice of the withdrawal of the Orihuela Costa emergency ambulance, which we then followed up in June, when the announcement to slash public ambulance services even further was discovered. Numerous experts warned then of the potentially life threatening situation that the time bomb of cuts was creating, even highlighting how, “response times are increased by both distance and the potential complexity of access”, as the health secretary for the PSPV-PSOE in the province of Alicante, Miguel Mauri, denounced “the reduction in hours of ambulance service”, which, he said, will motivate “extended delays”, which, in his view, “means the difference between life and death.
Filed under: http://www.theleader.info/article/41777/
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