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Friday, January 6, 2017
Serving Cork for 120 years
Well,you didsolve you solve Did Holly Holly Bough puzzles? Bough crossword?
Edition No: 36411
RRP: €1.50
Nine Cork teams battle for national basketball glory SEE CORK SPORTS WORLD
SOLUTIONS ON PAGE 27
Crisis hits ambulance waits Man dies in house fire AN elderly man who died in a house fire off Shandon Street yesterday was remembered by neighbours as a “lovely man” who had lived in the area his entire life, writes Rob McNamara. A fire broke out in a downstairs room in the house just before noon yesterday. A man in his 70s, named locally as Mossy O’Connell, died in the incident. ■ Continued on Page 2.
Speed cases are dismissed ALMOST half of speeding cases brought before the courts in Cork were struck out in the past two years because defendants had not received summonses. There were 6,490 summonses served to speeding motorists in Cork but 2,914 (44%) were struck out because the summons was not served on the motorists. ■ See Page 7 for more.
WEATHER TONIGHT L: 9º
40 minutes to reach emergencies PERFECT LITTLE CHRISTMAS GIFT SWINGS BY! PEOPLE experiencing life-threatening emergencies are waiting more than 40 minutes for an ambulance in some cases because of the ongoing trolley crisis in emergency departments.
■ Ann Murphy CRYSTAL Swing star Dervla Burke is today getting to know her baby son while her brother and mother carry on the band’s Women’s Little Christmas duties. Baby Paul O’Connor was born at Cork University Hospital yesterday morning to the delight of Dervla and husband Tim. Ecstatic granny and Dervla’s Crystal Swing bandmate, Mary Burke, said she and Dervla’s brother Derek will be busy tonight at a Women’s Little Christmas function in Midleton. But they got to meet the newest member of the Crystal Swing entourage yesterday. Mary said: “We are over the moon. He is beautiful and I am besotted with him.” She added: “He is very dear to me because my own mother passed away in May at around the time Dervla told me she was pregnant. Dervla and Tim have named him Paul after my late brother Paul. That is very special.”
Tony Gregg, of the National Ambulance Service Representative Association, said the current hospital overcrowding problems have left ambulances queuing outside emergency departments in Cork, with members regularly reporting delays transferring patients from ambulances to emergency departments. Under official targets, an ambulance should respond to life-threatening emergency calls within eight minutes and get to the scene of less urgent calls within 19 minutes. But Mr Gregg said: “Most hospitals have a shortage of
Baby Paul O’Connor with his proud grandmother, Mary Burke
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■ Audrey Ellard Walsh trolleys in emergency departments, which leads to delays in transfer and consequently calls start to back up and there are delays. “Then you see people waiting 40 minutes or more in cases for Echo and Delta calls (life-threatening calls). “In CUH there can be waits of up to an hour before patients are transferred from an ambulance trolley to an ED trolley. In the Mercy University Hospital, the wait can be up to three or four hours.” ■ See Page 3 for more.
Trolley crisis causing ambulance transfer delays. Picture: Larry Cummins
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