Lack of ambulance cover putting 'lives at risk'

Lack of ambulance cover in County Roscommon and East Galway is putting lives at risk, a recent HSE West Regional Health Forum was told.

At the meeting, Ballinasloe councillor Alan Harney raised the issue of ambulance cover at night in Portiuncula University Hospital.

In his written question, he explained that an elderly female relative had fallen recently. Despite living only 10 minutes from the hospital, the family waited more than 90 minutes for an ambulance to arrive.

By the time the ambulance arrived, the person had been on the ground for three hours, he said, adding that more than three calls were made to the National Ambulance Service (NAS) during the incident.

“It’s just not good enough. I am sure we see this happening on a fairly frequent basis,” he told the forum.

In its written response, the NAS said that Ballinasloe Ambulance Station was currently funded by the HSE to deliver 468 hours of rostered service with a complement of 16 staff.

“In practice, this equates to two ambulances by day and one ambulance by night six days a week, and one ambulance by day and night, one day per week. All of these ambulances comprise a crew of two paramedics and operate in 12 hour shifts. There is some overlap between ‘day’ and ‘night’ services.” 

It added that the NAS operated nationally and mobilised responses based on clinical priority, referred to as ‘Dynamic Ambulance Deployment’.

“For this reason, ambulances may travel to and be dispatched from various locations, irrespective of their town or county of origin, since they are not confined to work in specific geographical areas.” 

Speaking at the forum, Cllr Harney said the base at Portiuncula served East Galway and County Roscommon.

“I think there is a dearth of service in East Galway and right across Roscommon as things stand at present during night time hours,” he said. “My understanding is we are seeing more patients from their region being brought to UCHG. This is fine, but there are major challenges when ambulances, on their way back to us, could be deployed into Galway City or Oranmore. Ballinasloe or Roscommon can be left without an ambulance for hours on end.” 

In his own experience, it was his understanding that the ambulance based at Portiuncula was in Galway City for a routine patient transfer.

“The model in place is not working and it is not satisfactory,” he said, adding that it was leaving vulnerable people in the region at risk. “People just don’t get sick between the hours of nine and five. I have a real concern that lives are going to be lost because ambulances based in Ballinasloe and Loughglynn are redeployed within Galway.”

NAS general manager area operations for the West North West, Brendan McGovern, said he did not disagree with the councillor's comments.

“It is a matter of record that we are under resourced nationally,” he said. He said that the NAS resourcing model largely reflected the demand on its services by day and by night.

“It is the case that demand for services is significantly less than it is during the day,” he continued. “We are looking for additional funding in many stations across the area, including East Galway.” 

Cllr Harney welcomed that additional resources were being sought, adding that he would continue to lobby on this.