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A DUBLIN TD has raised concerns about ambulance services in Dublin.
Dublin South West TD Seán Crowe has said that cuts to ambulance services in Dublin city, county and its hinterland “will inevitably put lives at risk and lead to longer response times from a vastly reduced service”.
He made the comments after he was told that on Tuesday the Tallaght area was to be short of an ambulance at Airton Road between the hours of 7pm and 7am.
Deputy Crowe said:
[That] night the Swords area was without a HSE ambulance between the hours of 7am and 7pm. [That] evening the traditional HSE ambulance cover from Airton Road in Tallaght [was] missing.This reduced service is the result of official strategic decisions on the part of the HSE and is happening because of funding cutbacks.
Traditional HSE ambulance service coverage in areas like Maynooth, Kildare, Balbriggan, Baltinglass and Arklow are also going to be reduced in the coming days.
Deputy Crowe said that this will place additional pressure on existing services and will make response times even longer.
Investigation
The TD wrote to Health Minister Dr James Reilly about the issue, and received a response from Reilly’s office saying the Minister would investigate his concerns.
This move comes in the wake of a reduction of the working week for ambulance staff from 40 hours to 39 hours.
Deputy Crowe said that “the HSE will claim that the fire brigade service or a first responder car with one individual in it can provide adequate cover” but he wants to know if the service is “sufficient or able to cover the growing population of Dublin and its hinterland”.
He told TheJournal.ie that he felt resources are being stretched and that this could lead to “seriously injured or ill people being left without assistance”.
He claimed:
This roster cut and the gamble involved will inevitably lead to the loss of someone’s life. Ambulance staff are now not being covered if off sick or on annual leave. This is also putting additional pressure on the limited service.
Deputy Crowe has asked the Health Minister to convene a meeting of the HSE to discuss this matter.
HSE
The HSE said that in line with the Croke Park Agreement, the Labour Court has issued a recommendation directing the National Ambulance Service and Trade Unions representing paramedical staff to address some overtime inefficiencies within its rostering arrangements.
These changes to rosters are being addressed under the Croke Park Agreement and will result in the same levels of service and manpower but at lower costs to the taxpayer.
It added that there is no dispute involving the ambulance station in Tallaght.
The HSE said that one of the key inefficiencies identified in the National Ambulance Service was rostering arrangements to reflect the reduction of weekly working hours from 40 to 39 arising from the Organisation of Working Time Act 1997.
While discussions are still ongoing in some locations there will be no reduction in manpower, however, current overtime levels will be reduced.
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Just waiting on the government to blame the non payment of household tax on this.
An area the size of Swords with no HSE ambulance service at night time! What in gods name has become of this country? The buck stops at the top in this case! If this Government would rather use taxpayers money to pay their wealthy pals gambling debts than use it to protect its citizens health, then it’s time the people fought back! How did we let it get this bad?
It has a DFB ambulance for the last couple of years, which like all other DFB ambulances are extremely busy 24 hours a day, with the engines never getting a chance to cool down
Steve, it’s not just dfb ambulances that are busy ya know….. HSE NAS crews are the same (in my area anyway). Shifts being left uncovered mean we rarely in the station, just constantly on the road on calls….
Rodrigo it would be useful if you read and absorbed the facts before you jump into the attack completely in the wrong. The change in roster comes from an improvement in the working hours of Ambulance personnel and an agreement that the necessary coverage can be handled within the overall Service …which mean Fire Service ambulances etc. both parties to the agreement confirmed that the necessary coverage would be available and the next thing you’re screaming about bondholders!
Maybe you need an ambulance?
Solutions maybe found ny adopting a Cuban model of healthcare
Along with a Cuban Model of tax?
I spoke to a nurse here a few years ago who travelled to Cuba and she told me that although they have free health care in Cuba there is a lack of medical supplies or equipment. So while Fidel and his cronies get the best of care his people get nothing.
I’ll think u’ll find the lack of medical supplies more to do with the massive sanctions on Cuba although i dont doubt that the people in power avail of it more. Same in every country in the world.
Derek, that’s true about the sanctions but that shouldn’t stop Fidel’s buddy Hugo Chavez helping out or Russia in the past.
Hugo does help where he can, just like the fact he supplies cheap oil to disadvantaged areas of the US.
Well said nocturnal. The Hse are f****d as regards their budget. They have paused recruitment across the board. They set up a new intermediate care service to take over lower acuity calls from emergency ambulances but so far only three stations have ICV’s operating. The lads on the ground are doing their best with what they have, it’s up to management to get their fingers out and properly implement service changes.
Yep Chris better spent on nations health and well being than on bondholders gambling debts
Why hasn’t anyone looked at moving to pre-hospital system more like the UK; voluntaries on call (st john’s, red cross), community responder schemes (defib, first aiders), air ambulance support (wide ranging, fast, higher quality care). The traditional ambulance monopoly by HSE, of only HSE staff, only road support is causing long response times, under staffed and over worked, and it’s eventually the people who suffer. If it wasn’t for the Fire Brigade in Dublin things would be dire… but the rest of us around the country don’t have them.
What exactly do you think the national ambulance service do all day every day? It’s highly insulting to paramedics who work their arses off every day around the country for the public to state that dfb are the only emergency service that are doing a good job…….
(dfb do a great job in my opinion by the way)
Plus you sound like a voluntary ambulance member who’s bitter because they couldn’t get into the hse…..
Voluntary ambulance services on call are not the way forward for pre hospital care… Most volunteers aren’t trained to a high enough level to respond to emergency calls! Theyre place is first aid and that’s the way it should stay!
@Nocturnal: I think you took me up wrong there. I think the HSE paramedics do a great job, my point is there aren’t enough of them. I think that the extra service the dublin fire brigade do though is vital because the HSE can’t do everything themselves. If the HSE had the vehicles and the staff, as well as the money to be the sole providers, I’m all for that! But as it stands they’re not, which is my complaint.
Also, no interest in healthcare, I’m a lawyer, I did volunteer with St.John’s when I was in the UK studying though. And I agree, the PHEC council in Ireland aren’t training the voluntaries high enough in Ireland at the moment to provide for front line care. The current EMT in Ireland is only the same training as responders in England. But there doesn’t have to be emergency calls all the time, and often you’ll probably agree, there are a lot of minor or calls that don’t need paramedic expertise.
It just seems that Ireland could use a more liberal and modern approach to out of hospital healthcare. By utilising alternative care methods out there in conjunction with the HSE to provide the best service.
But psychologicaly could all those deal with the tragic accidents and emergencies the professional has to deal with? i don’t think so.
@Les…. could psychological an Air Ambulance with a registrar in Emergency Medicine and a flight paramedic deal with trauma …? ….. Yes.
I apologise if I took you up wrong tobilas….
Although there are plenty calls that are non emergency in nature I don’t think voluntary ambulance services responding to them are the way forward… I wouldn’t like to see a time when unpaid volunteers are responding to 999 calls… I think a treat and discharge system similar to the uk is the way forward, where a paramedic will respond to the call and if the patient does not need to be treated in the emergency department they will be treated on scene or referred to the appropriate clinic or gp etc….
I also agree with you regarding first responder schemes with defibs in rural communities…. This will save lives no doubt!!
@Nocturnal, I agree with you absolutely, I would not want volunteers responding to 112 calls. I think people are talking me up wrong when I mentioned that.
All healthcare providers will know about the golden hour for treatment, but paramedics know better than anyone else, this real is a platinum 10 minutes in pre-hospital situations. Ireland is meant to have an 8 minute response time, as CPR needs to be administer in the first 2 minutes, and once someone is down with Cardiac arrest for longer than 10 minutes, there chances of survival are minimal.
This is why I don’t believe that community responders should be limited to rural areas. Having voluntaries or community responders available in cities as well, to get to a person within less than 10 minutes, if a HSE ambulance will be delayed could save someones life. So to have these services to be there BEFORE hse paramedics would be a great benefit. I would hope that no volunteer would ever go out solely to a 112 call, but because time is so essential, to use resources to have care in the intermittent period I can see as no harm at all, and there are people out there willing to do this for free.
I dont mean to plug, but http://www.sja.org.uk/sja/what-we-do/community-first-responders.aspx I think is a great programme that would go learn from and use some aspects in Ireland.
Declan i hear you . But lets look at the good points about a system that caters and cares for its citizens. We are losing that focus as we are following the American model that puts profit before people. We can redefine our system by putting wellbeing and people first before contracts , consultants and corporate greed.
HSE doctors and nurses are already pushed to the limits. The amount they get paid is in relation to the amount of work they do, which is mahoosive. Please don’t bash the staff on the frontline.
It’s the fault of those who didn’t pay the household charge .if they paid up our services would b perfect reliable and on time.there would b plenty of staff ,no potholes,hedges cut,the pals would b paid and all would b perfect as before
Or maybe Mr Quinn could pay us back some of his gambling debts
Plenty of ambulances and doctors and nurses for 2.6billion.
and we could have real summers like we use to have. Oh then we will be charged sunshine tax, its a bit like taxing the home ,only less profitable in Ireland.
the response time is far to long as it is not slating the paramedics at all they can only do so much with what there given but a friend of mine six month old baby was having a seizure and then became un responsive in a central Dublin park the other day we where left waiting 30 minutes for an ambulance and the only help i got from the operator on the phone was that the ambulance was with someone who had passed out which was more of a priority!! I really hope response times can’t get worse
Firstly I sincerely hope your friends child was ok in the end. I’m sorry to hear this. If the call was from central Dublin that ‘operator’ would have been a paramedic and usually a fire engine with paramedics on board would have been sent to stabilise that child until an ambulance was available. A service unique to Dublin. I find it strange if this didn’t happen.
unfortunately no one was sent until the ambulance arrived half hour later we where told we’d have to wait for the ambulance as they where on another call which was of priority because the other person was unconscious where as baby was having a seizure but still conscious the he became un responsive and I had to call back again the lady i was talking to was no help to be honest another parent who was in the park who had first aid helped us till the ambulance arrived!
unfortunately no one was sent until the ambulance arrived half hour later we where told we’d have to wait for the ambulance as they where on another call which was of priority because the other person was unconscious where as baby was having a seizure but still conscious the he became un responsive and I had to call back again the lady i was talking to was no help to be honest another parent who was in the park who had first aid helped us till the ambulance arrived!
Your Goveranment is to blame.
Who’s Deputy Sean Crowe a TD with ?
Sinn fein.
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