by Kate Heaney
AMBULANCE turnaround times at Letterkenny University Hospital have come down since September, the latest meeting of Regional Health Forum West was this week told.
Letterkenny councillor Gerry McMonagle tabled a question to the meeting asking for a breakdown of how many ambulances crews are based in Donegal in any 24- hour period and where are they are based.
“We are having a lot of ambulance units being backed up at the hospital. When four, five, six or seven ambulances are backed up how do we meet the needs in the areas those ambulances are from? he inquired.
JJ McGowan, Chief Ambulance Officer, West told the meeting there was “a lot of dynamic deployment”.
He explained that it took a two to three year period to train a paramedic and new recruits training will be divided among Letterkenny, Stranorlar and Buncrana.
“Once we get this new cohort out we will look to fill the gaps and increase the teams we have out there,” Mr McGowan said.
In his written reply he explained that ambulance resources based at Letterkenny, Buncrana, Stranorlar, Killybegs, Carndonagh, Dungloe and Donegal Town provide 24 hour, seven day cover.
Where a station has more than one crew such as Letterkenny and Dungloe, the shift start times are staggered.
Letterkenny cover at times has four crews and other times three. All of the other bases are covered by single crews, one morning and one night.
The Pathfinder and Community service are county based and respond to calls across the county.
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