AMBULANCE TROUBLE AGAIN

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2896, 7 October 1916, Page 10

AMBULANCE TROUBLE AGAIN

"A SCANDALOUS DISGRACE."- v Last evening, at 8.40 o'clock, a mail named George Campbell, married, residing at Norfolk Avenue, sustained u : broken leg through accidentally falling l from an overhead coal railway at the Railway Wharf,- while unloading coal from tiie steamer Ngakuta. Constable Shields and Dr. S. H. Arthur were quickly 011 the scene, and the doctor bahdaged. the man up and had him • ready lor the Hospital by 9 p.m., but the -"ambulatfco was, as has been the. case more than once lately, conspicuous by its absence. Constable Faliey liad gone for the ambulance, and the night watchman at' Lambton Police Station had been advised that the ambulance would be sent down. Half an hour later tlio watchman was advised that the ambulance was not available, and ho was advised to try and get a taxi-cab. An attempt was then made to get the Windsor Hotel car, which was ; however, not available. Finally it was decided that an ordinary taxi was of no use, and an express was taken to the scene. The small wheeled stretcher from the wharf Tolls Office had also been taken down, and. after a wait of nearly two hours the injured man was started for the Hospital at 10.15 p.m. Five minutes later the. ambulance arrived on the scene, but as the man was already on his way it was deemed inadvisable to shift him, aud the ambulance went back empty.

And why was the ambulance not available? The reason, as far as could be gathered from inquiry last night, is that only one man is at present employed as ambulance driver, and he did not happen to be at tlie Hospital at the time, and although the ambulance was ready and in good running order there was no one to drive it. Dr. Arthur expressed an opinion, while waiting round the deck of the steamer, that the occurence "was a scandalous disgrace" to a City of the size of Wellington, and various other people present heartily agreed with him. It is not pleasant to contemplate what would happen in the case of an explosion, such as occurred at Auckland recently.