Deputy Pat the Cope Gallagher Leas Cheann Comhairle has raised the issue of the urgent need for a second ambulance to cover South West Donegal, covering the area from Inver Bridge to Glencolmcille, in addition to providing cover for the parish of Ardara. This is a vast geographical area, with many parts of these communities isolated and far removed from the nearest University Hospital, and as we are all aware, time for emergency call outs is critical and of the essence to safeguard patients recovery.
I have raised this issue on numerous occasions, as it is an issue of critical concern to the respective local communities. I have had representations that delays were occurring in the call out of ambulances to areas within Southwest Donegal, on occasions depending on the call outs, cover ambulances had to be despatched from either Letterkenny, Dungloe or even Ballyshannon to take patients from SW Donegal to hospital, this has led to time delays of an additional hour or even more before an ambulance arrives to the call out added Pat the Cope.
I am concerned that the callout time for these areas is falling well short of the national accepted norm, it is just not acceptable that an ambulance has to be despatched from Dungloe or Letterkenny to eventually bring a patient from either Kilcar, Killybegs ( for example ) to either Sligo or Letterkenny University Hospitals stated Pat the Cope.
The current ambulance crews are providing an excellent service; the issue here is the gross under funding of the service providing cover for this area, at present only one ambulance covers this entire area. It is a distance of east to west 45 miles from furthest points from Inver to Glencolmcille, and a further 20 miles north to south but if an ambulance it despatched from Letterkenny it adds a further 40 miles and possibly another 40 minutes to call out time added Pat the Cope.
In emergency call out of ambulances – time is the critical element, the quicker an ambulance gets to the patient the better and more wholesome the recovery for that patient. It is self-evident that there are inherent and clear dangerous with the under servicing of Southwest Donegal, with only one ambulance crew covering southwest Donegal it is impossible to provide the service which is directed under the national guidelines for call out times, secondly there is no second call out team based within the locality.
When one considers the busy port of Killybegs and the massive number of tourists within the area notwithstanding the local population, there are areas of serious concerns for the service level provided at present. But, unfortunately the Government are not listening to the concerns of the general public or communities within southwest Donegal, previous political promises for a second ambulance have mounted to nothing. It is not acceptable that such a reduced service level continues to be provided for SW Donegal, this matter requires immediate action by both the National Ambulance Service and the Government concluded Pat the Cope.
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