Sinn F\u00e9in TD for Dublin South West, Se\u00e1n Crowe, has reacted with concern\u00a0to the latest Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) report into ambulance capacity which found that there are significant shortcomings in Dublin, putting patients at a high level of risk.<\/p>\n
Crowe has demanded urgent action and investment, and said that currently there is significant scope for many of the reforms to be delivered under existing resources through better management of the service.<\/p>\n
Deputy Se\u00e1n Crowe said:<\/p>\n
\u201cThe recently published HIQA report again highlights that reforms are urgently needed in this whole area and it reflects what many people are saying on the issue.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe report gives a damning indictment on the Government\u2019s inaction and states that significant shortcomings in the Dublin area are putting patients\u2019 lives at risk. The picture across the State is no better, with stories coming in every day of patients being left stranded or lengthy delays waiting on an ambulance.<\/p>\n
\u201cHIQA has found that the service lacks capacity, and despite increased recruitment rates, it remains heavily over reliant on overtime to maintain services.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe report\u00a0says that a lot more has to be done to ensure a modern and effective emergency ambulance service is provided by Ireland’s two publicly funded services – the National Ambulance Service and Dublin Fire Brigade.<\/p>\n
\u201cCurrently, if a patient with a potentially life-threatening condition in Dublin calls 112\/999 for an ambulance, the arrangements for call handling and dispatch can result in lengthy delays in response times. Any ambulance delay will and does lead to the loss of life.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis latest report should act as a wake-up call for the Minister for Health Simon Harris. Swift action is needed to ensure that the best quality ambulance services are available right across the State.<\/p>\n
\u201cCitizens are quite right to demand and expect to see an\u00a0operational, properly funded, and well-resourced ambulance service that is fit for purpose. They are not, as this report highlights, seeing or getting that.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Crowe continued:<\/p>\n
\u201cThe recommendations of the HIQA Review will require significant changes in leadership, strategic planning, funding, cooperation and better coordination of services by service providers.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe cannot continue to have a situation in Dublin where there are lengthy delays for patients and we must ensure that the Dublin Fire Brigade service is fully protected and enhanced where necessary.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll agencies providing ambulance cover for Dublin need to work in tandem with each other.<\/p>\n
\u201cCommunities, regardless of their geographical location, should not have to experience unnecessarily long and dangerous delays while waiting for ambulances, but that is what is happening at the moment.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe paramedics and frontline personnel want to ensure quality of care and patient safety but this cannot happen without further Government commitments in terms of enhanced resourcing and personnel being followed through on.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
ENDS<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sinn F\u00e9in TD for Dublin South West, Se\u00e1n Crowe, has reacted with concern\u00a0to the latest Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) report into ambulance capacity which found that there are significant shortcomings in Dublin, putting patients at a high level of risk. Crowe has demanded urgent action and investment, and said that currently there is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[229,44,302],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ambulance","category-health","category-hiqa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3054","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3054"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3054\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3055,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3054\/revisions\/3055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}