OPINION: Crisis in the ambulance service in Offaly must be addressed

Reports the ambulance service in Tullamore and other parts of Offaly and surrounding areas is in a state of crisis are very worrying.

Stressed and exhausted paramedics are forced to respond to calls often as far away as Dublin and Galway while areas in Offaly are repeatedly left with no ambulance cover as there may be only one local ambulance and it is responding to a call in another region of the country.

The situation, as reported on by Camilla McLoughlin, was outlined to members of Tullamore Municipal District on Thursday night last at the monthly meeting with a letter sent by a local paramedic to all members of the council was read aloud.

The letter outlined a litany of failures by the HSE to address the issue and the serious concerns and fears of one paramedic.

''Unfortunately we are having to cover unreasonable distances in response to emergency calls which can be two or three counties away and therefore this means there may be no ambulance cover for the area we are supposed to cover and in turn the people of our community have to wait even longer for an ambulance,'' the letter stated.

The paramedic explained that all too often, local ambulances have to respond to calls not just in the neighbouring counties of Laois, Westmeath and Longford, but also Kildare, Carlow, Kilkenny, Roscommon and Galway.

The paramedic added that it is a nationwide issue which has been allowed to develop. ''Now anyone who requires immediate emergency care is having to wait for far too long for an emergency ambulance,'' the letter stated.

The paramedic spoke of the stress involved in the job when dealing with life and death challenges.

''As I’m sure you are aware, we have a stressful job that can present us with challenges of life and death. However, the working conditions have deteriorated to the point whereby too many staff have had to leave the job and in turn this exacerbates the issues already mentioned above. The long distances travelled and lack of ambulances working means that we get no breaks between emergency calls, the extreme distances travelled per shift, consistently finishing our 12 hour shift late by up to 5 hours in some cases, is putting every one of us under too much stress and causing extreme fatigue. The stress of managing an extremely unwell patient in the back of an ambulance alone is one thing but having a travel time of greater than an hour is exhausting and we need adequate time to recover afterwards.''

''As was evident when an ambulance from Portlaoise crashed on the way to another call in Kildare last week. Thankfully there were no serious injuries but this should be a wake up call to making the changes necessary. Nobody should have to die for the changes to be made,'' the letter outlined.''

The paramedic went on to say that conditions have deteriorated to the point where too many staff have had to leave the job and in turn this adds to the issues already mentioned

Local Sinn Féin TD Brian Stanley also criticised what he stated is ''the Government’s failure to train and retain enough paramedics to safely staff the Ambulance Service.

The Laois / Offaly TD said that “ambulance response times to life-threatening call-outs in the Midlands Region for this year was 28 minutes compared to 25minutes for the same period last year and well above the 19-minute maximum target.

The Ambulance Service has been run into the ground over the last ten years, and this is showing in average response times and patients’ experience. 50% of life-threatening call-outs should be responded to within 19 minutes, but across the State only 39% were in June this year. The average response time is up from last year and show a continuing deterioration.’’

“The reason Emergency call-outs are taking longer is because the ambulance service is understaffed. I have highlighted over the past 2 years cases in the constituency where people have waited up to 2 hours for an ambulance. Paramedics are burned out and exhausted,'' he said.

Other counties in the region, including Tipperary, are also experiencing huge problems with the ambulance service.

The situation must be addressed as a matter of urgency by the powers that be in the HSE and Government.