CONCERNS HAVE BEEN raised over the repeated use of Defence Forces ambulances by the HSE.
A parliamentary question by Sinn Féin TD Seán Crowe to Minister for Justice Alan Shatter revealed that on 804 occasions Defence Forces ambulances from the Curragh Camp, County Kildare, were used by the National Ambulance Service to “meet additional demands on its services in the locality”.
He added that this occurs through “local arrangements between the HSE and the Military authorities”.
Local councillor Thomas Redmond called on the HSE to clarify it uses of the ambulances.
“My question is why are the managers not investing and forcing the defence forces to do HSE employees work” he said.
I find it staggering the army ambulances are being used when there is currently an embargo on HSE workers and when staffing issues in the HSE are dangerously low. I am also at odds to know the exact deal that was done the types of calls and the future plans for using the ambulance service.
“I must state that I do not question the qualifications of anyone in the Defence forces” he added, “but as a tax payer I question when these decisions were made and the types of calls the Army answer”.
The parliamentary question asked how many times “the ambulance service in the Curragh Camp was called to work outside the camp in the past three years”, and revealed that on 323 occasions Defence Forces ambulances were used by the HSE in 2011, 207 in 2012, and 274 this year to date.
Ambulances were also used on a total of 224 occasions outside of the camp by the Defence Forces to transport their own military personal to and from hospital and to attend training exercises.
Cutbacks forced the closure for certain time periods of ambulance stations in Maynooth two months ago, something which local TD Catherine Murphy called “extremely alarming”.
This also affected areas of Tallaght and Swords in Dublin, with Tallaght closing between 7am and 7pm on Mondays.
The HSE said these stations would be serviced by by crews from adjacent locations when closed.
More: National targets for ambulance response times to be abandoned >
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