Kirk calls for full review of ambulance operations in North East

An ambulance being towed up River Lane in Dundalk

Louth Fianna Fáil TD Seamus Kirk has called for a full review of the National Ambulance Service (NAS) operations in the North East as a matter of urgency.

The former Ceann Comhairle’s comments come after it emerged it took over an hour to get a heart attack victim from Dundalk to Drogheda at the weekend because an ambulance broke down.

Deputy Kirk said: “This is totally unacceptable. Patients’ lives are being put at risk because the national ambulance fleet operating in the North East is not fit for purpose. This is not the first incident of this type in the region and unfortunately many people believe it won’t be the last.

“I am calling on Minister Varadkar as the new Minister for Health to order a fundamental review of the operations of the National Ambulance Service in the North East. It’s not good enough that patients are literally depending on the element of chance to get to hospital on time.

“The HSE has informed me that the National Ambulance Service operates three ambulance stations at Dundalk, Drogheda and Ardee with the command and control centre in Dublin. The NAS also has two Rapid Response Vehicles, one in Ardee and one in Trim.

“This incident happened late on Saturday evening. It is precisely because there are limited services available at this time of the day and week that the reliability of the service must be unquestionable. People in Louth need to know that in emergency, any emergency, they are able to receive safe and efficient ambulance care.”

Heart attack victim takes over an hour to get from Dundalk to Drogheda following ambulance breakdown

A local family have hit out at the National Ambulance Service after an ambulance carrying a heart attack victim broke down on its way from Dundalk to Drogheda at the weekend.

Roseanne Duffy fell ill just after 11.20pm on Saturday night after suffering what later transpired to be a cardiac arrest. Her daughter Charlene rang for an ambulance but despite the fact one arrived within minutes, it took more than an hour for her mother to get to Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda due to complications along the way.

Ms Duffy’s other daughter Jenny told The Irish Times that they “would have been better off getting a lift.”

Jenny insists that the ambulance left Dundalk just before midnight but the NAS is insisting this actually occurred at 12.07am.

She told The Irish Times: “45 minutes later I texted my sister Charlene, who travelled in the ambulance with her, thinking they would be in the hospital and my sister said they had broken down.”

In a statement issued yesterday, the NAS confirmed that at 12.32am a warning light activated on the dashboard and the crew requested another ambulance to bring the patient to hospital. This resulted in the ambulance being pulled over, with the Duffy family believing that the engine had failed.

The statement from the ambulance service says the replacement ambulance arrived at 12.55am, “left the scene with the patient at 1.02am and arrived at the hospital at 1.10am.”

That means the journey would have taken 63 minutes.

Meanwhile, it is also reported that another emergency vehicle is off the road in Louth at present after it filled with smoke on Saturday.

There was no patient on board at the time, with the NAS confirming that this ambulance had a mechanical problem.

The NAS insists that the “capacity to respond to emergency calls has not been compromised as a result, as other vehicles are available to cover.”

Read the full story here.