CALL-OUT CONCERN

Danny Hickinson, Chairman of Ballybogey FC, was speaking after their player Ryan 'Skins' Watton sustained an horrific double leg break after an accidental collision during a match against Portrush on Saturday.

Mr Hickinson insists the young player had to lie in agony for over an hour before an ambulance arrived although the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service said it took 37 minutes for an ambulance to arrive.

Mr Hickinson said he had no complaints about the care given by the ambulance crew when they arrived, but sticking to his claim that it took over an hour for emergency vehicle to come, he said it was "disgraceful" that a player had to lie in pain for so long.

The double leg break to Watton came just days after a similar serious incident involving a Ballycastle United player.

Now, the Ballybogey Club is due to hold a meeting tonight (Tuesday) and Mr Hickinson says the possibility of getting officials from St John Ambulance to be on standby at the Riada Stadium will be raised.

And he said club members are keen to possibly go on first aid courses as they felt "helpless" by the "distressing" scenes which unfolded on Saturday afternoon at the Riada Stadium.

At Altnagelvin Hospital on Monday, Watton, who has previously played for Glebe Rangers, underwent an operation on his injuries.

It is understood St John Ambulance personnel are on standby at some sporting fixtures in north Antrim but in the wake of Saturday's developments, Danny Hickinson says consideration should be given to a presence from the charitable organisation when a number of league matches are being held at the Riada Stadium.

Mr Hickinson said perhaps local teams could even club together to pay for such a presence, if that is what is needed, or he said it could be something Ballymoney Council might consider.

Mr Hickinson said as people put in calls to the Ambulance Service around 12.35pm on Saturday they were told that the service was "busy" and he claimed a crew eventually arrived around over an hour later at 1.40-1.45pm although the Ambulance Service says their information is different.

Said Mr Hickinson: "Because of his injury nobody moved Ryan. The injury came at the end of the match and he had to lie on the wet ground although coats were put over him and a girl from the Joey Dunlop Leisure Centre helped out as well and the changing room man Willie Simpson did all he could to open gates for the ambulance."

Mr Hickinson said contact will be made with North Antrim MLA Mervyn Storey to get an answer about the response time of the ambulance.

Added the sports official: "The girl from the leisure centre deserves a medal for her work. We knew his leg was broken because you could hear the crack from the touchline. Ryan can play at a higher grade of football but he was playing for us this year because our matches start at 11am and it means he can work in the afternoon.

"It was the coldest morning of the autumn so far and we took off coats and the girl from the leisure centre came with blankets. Portrush officials also gave us coats to put round Ryan."

The girl from the leisure centre praised for her work in assisting the injured player was leisure attendant Julie Newton.

Continued Danny Hickinson: "I have seen a couple of broken legs in my life on the football pitch and on Saturday you could have heard the crack at the far end of the field. Even the shinguard was broken but it was an accident after players went for the ball. No one is being blamed and the Portrush players and officials were as gutted as we were."

Mr Hickinson said Ryan is a 24-year-old centre-half who lives in Ballybogey and he said the thoughts of both Ballybogey and Portrush are with the player for a speedy recovery.

Mr Hickinson said the Ambulance Service should have more crews on stand-by on Saturdays as sport is widely played.

He said there could be up to five matches on at a time at the Riada Stadium.

The Ballybogey official added: "If the National Health Service have not enough money to provide this perhaps we could look at getting somebody like St John Ambulance on standby and perhaps it could be paid for by teams putting money into a kitty.

"We will be meeting on Tuesday night to see how we can improve things. I know they could possibly sit there the whole winter without a major incident but we have had at least two broken legs in north Antrim in recent weeks."

A spokesperson for the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service told the Times they were alerted to a "non-life threatening incident at the football pitches at the Joey Dunlop Centre on Saturday 23 October 2010 at 12:36."

The statement added: "All available A&E vehicles in the area were engaged in ambulance activity at the time of the call and an appropriate response was dispatched at the earliest opportunity, arriving at the scene at 13:13 before transporting the patient to the Causeway Hospital.

"NIAS operates a call prioritisation system whereby, based on information received from the caller, the call is placed in one of three categories - A, B or C. Category A calls are those which are potentially life threatening and require an immediate response; Category C calls are those which are serious but not life threatening and Category C calls are those which are neither life threatening nor serious.

"The call in question was categorised as a Category C call and therefore not requiring an immediate response.

"NIAS seeks to respond to every call as quickly as possible, and we have been making year on year improvements in our capacity to respond more quickly to all calls. These improvements have been managed in the context of, what is also, a year on year increase in the number of calls received.

"However due to a high volume of calls at any given time, delays in response, although regrettable, are sometimes unavoidable," ended the statement.

No one at the Joey Dunlop Leisure Centre was available for comment and a spokesperson for Ballymoney Council, who own the Riada Stadium, said on Monday morning they were not in a position to comment at that stage.

The Times was also unable to contact St John Ambulance officials in Ballymoney.