An injured woman was left waiting for over five hours for an ambulance in Carlow recently.
On Friday evening, a call was made to the emergency services to help the woman, who had fallen down a flight of stairs and was struggling.
Her partner placed a call to 999 - but no ambulance was available until hours later.
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The unnamed woman was told she was a priority case when the initial call was made shortly before 8pm after her fall.
Her partner PJ spoke to KCLR Live on Monday afternoon to explain the situation.
He described making the initial phonecall and then subsequent calls to follow up when the ambulance still hadn’t arrived.
PJ claimed it was after 1.15 am when the paramedics got there and even then they needed additional support:
"We actually had to call in reinforcements from the fire station to put her on a backboard and to keep her neck and head still in case she had done a spinal injury,” he told KCLR.
"She was in quite a lot of pain at the time and she was very distressed, but the ambulance crew put in the call to the fire station and within 15 minutes the first responders came"
The situation is the latest in a line of incidents which have seen people left stranded while awaiting assistance from the emergency services.
Earlier this month, a League of Ireland legend who waited nearly four hours on the pitch for an ambulance after his leg broke in five places during a football match fumed: "This country is a disgrace."
David Scully, 37, who had a successful playing career with Bohemians FC, Finn Harps and Bray Wanderers, was left in agony on the pitch following the “freak accident”.
The footballer, who was playing as a centre-half for Montpelier FC, fainted a number of times while waiting on the ambulance before he was brought to Tallaght Hospital.
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