The region’s ambulance chief has pinpointed Galway City as his most problematic location for cover.
Paudie O’Riordan, Chief Ambulance Officer for the West, Northwest and Midwest, with responsibility for over 500 paramedic staff and a fleet of 100 ambulances across the nine counties, said he cannot operate a service on a county basis.
“The National Ambulance Service does not operate on a county, regional or area basis. Across the country the National Emergency Operations Centre has visibility of all crews to ensure than emergency response is assigned to all calls.
“This may on occasions have crews from adjoining counties, regions and areas respond to calls if they are the most appropriate and available resource,” he stated.
Some 38 extra “intermediate care” staff have been allocated to the northwest to manage non-emergency or “low acuity” calls so that emergency crews could concentrate on emergency calls. Before their appointment, emergency crews were managing up to 800 low acuity calls per month.
There was a move to eliminate ‘on call’ crews, which could take up to 20 minutes before they were despatched to patients.
Leitrim Councillor Caillian Ellis (FF) complained that patients were being picked up by crews from an adjacent county and were being transported to the crew’s hospital rather than the nearest one for the patient.
Mr O’Riordan said that would not be following ambulance protocol and he would be surprised if it was happening. Patients should be brought to their nearest, most appropriate hospital regardless of where the crew had travelled from.
He said rural areas were always going to be a challenge for the National Ambulance Service. Some 53% of the west area – Galway, Mayo and Roscommon – was designated rural, which meant less than one call per day was logged. In the northwest it was 60% rural and in the midwest it was 41%.
“The biggest challenge I have at the moment is in Galway City. If I have an emergency here, that sucks in crews from Carraroe, Clifden and from other areas like Roscommon. So what we’re trying to do is resource the likes of Sligo so crews here are no longer being sucked out,” he told councillors
“We’ve 100 in training this year…we are trying to remove and recognise pressure points. We’re trying to liaise and develop community first responder groups.”
Campaigners for improved ambulance cover in Connemara want two crew based in Connemara all the time to respond to emergencies.
Last month they welcomed news of an additional ambulance crew, of between six and eight staff, that will be allocated to Galway City by the end of March to take the pressure off the single ambulance crew based in either the base in Clifden or Carraroe.
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