FORMER GOVERNMENT TD Denis Naughten is hitting out at the National Ambulance Service for spending €1.74 million on three new ambulance centres, but not providing any cash for ambulances or staff at those locations.
In the last two years, the NAS has spent €1.2m on a new ambulance base in Tuam, Co. Galway; €470,000 on a new base for Mulranny, Co. Mayo; and is presently spending €70,000 on one for West Roscommon/East Mayo at Loughglynn. The locations have all been identified as ambulance ‘black spots’.
Crews from Galway City and Ballinasloe are being deployed out of Tuam, ambulances from Castlebar and Ballina are operating out of Mulranny, and crews from Roscommon will be deployed through the Loughglynn station.
“While funds could be found to develop ambulance stations which are now deemed un-necessary due to the change in the operation of the ambulance service, no money is being made available to provide either an ambulance or staff to operate the new stations,” Naughten said in the Dáil, at tonight’s Fianna Fáil private member’s motion on the ambulance service.
Instead ambulances are being ‘borrowed’ from stations at Ballinasloe, Galway, Castlebar and soon Roscommon Town, where these stations are then left scrambling for vehicles to attend to life-threatening incidents.
“Less than half of the ambulances deployed in the West attend to a life-threatening incident within the HIQA target time of 19 minutes.
“The HIQA target response of having an emergency first responder — that is a paramedic, a doctor or someone with a defibrillator and/or advanced first aid at the scene of a life threatening emergency within eight minutes — was achieved on less than one in five occasions in the west of Ireland.”
The state of the ambulance service has been under renewed focus since the broadcast of last month’s Prime Time investigation on the issue, which examined how only one in every three people with life-threatening conditions were responded to within the stated target time.
Naughten, a former Fine Gael TD, lost the party whip for voting against the party on cuts to emergency services at Roscommon Hospital.
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