By Olivier Vergnault
The Evening Herald
LONDON — An angler who was airlifted off a cliff after breaking his ankle had to be taken to hospital in a paramedic’s car because of a shortage of ambulances.
The 32-year-old man was fishing with his brother near the disused quarry between London Bridge and Shag Rock at Torquay when he slipped and injured himself.
It is understood the angler’s brother called 999 for help and the Coastguards’ Torbay and Berry Head cliff rescue teams were sent to Daddyhole Plain.
Ambulance chiefs confirmed crews were rushed off their feet at the time of the incident and had to take the unprecedented step of taking the injured angler to hospital by paramedic car.
Brian Smith, deputy station officer with Torbay cliff rescue team, said the Coastguard helicopter had to be called in when it became obvious that any cliff rescue would be difficult.
Mr Smith said the team would have struggled to pull the injured man on a stretcher up the 200-metre rocky slope.
He added: “We could have carried out the extraction but it would have been a difficult one.
“We could do it but we thought the assets were available so we decided to use the helicopter.”
The dramatic cliff rescue happened metres away from the Coastwatch tower at Daddyhole Plain, with emergency services being alerted shortly after 1pm yesterday.
Mr Smith said a six-strong crew from the Torbay team and another six-strong back-up team from Brixham attended, along with a fast response paramedic unit.
Mr Smith said winchman Pat Holder was lowered to the casualty to assess the extent of his injuries.
The helicopter came from Portland and was on scene within 15 minutes.
Mr Smith said the helicopter circled around Tor Bay before lifting both the winchman and the casualty in a harness.
The helicopter later landed at Daddyhole Plain before the angler was transferred to the fast response paramedic car to be taken to hospital for treatment.
Coastguard helicopter pilot Spike Hughes said: “There was no need for a stretcher. It was a busy day at the hospital. Ambulances were diverted twice for more serious injuries.
“We landed the casualty back here and handed him over to the paramedics who drove him to the hospital,” he said.
Mr Smith added: “We asked for a land ambulance but they were all stacked up at the hospital and there was none available for this incident.
“We understand they had no beds available so casualties had to wait in the ambulances.
“Meanwhile we had the helicopter stuck up here waiting for an ambulance when it could have gone somewhere else.”
A spokesman for South West Ambulance Services confirmed that the fleet was extremely busy at the time of the cliff rescue emergency.
“We experienced an unprecedented demand for our local vehicles at the time,” he said.
“As a result we had to use our Rapid Response Vehicle which we would not normally do, but we had no option.
“We would have preferred to have used an ambulance but this was just not possible because of the quite unusual demand on our resources.”
Caroline Hill, a spokeswoman for Torbay Hospital, denied Mr Smith’s suggestion that the hospital did not have enough free beds at the time.
“The ambulance service had a peak in calls at that time,” she said. “It was totally coincidental.
“We were unloading ambulances as they arrived and turning them around as quickly as possible.”
Copyright 2010 Evening Herald