ONE in five emergency ambulances dispatched in Donegal within the last three years failed to arrive with the patient within the Hiqa standards new figures reveal.
Between October 2015 and the end of last month (April 2018) there were 239 ‘echo’ calls and almost 10,000 (9,737) ‘delta’ calls in Donegal.
A 999 call is classified as “echo” if it involves life-threatening cardiac or respiratory distress and as “delta” if it is another type of life-threatening condition.
In 2010, to help improve the ambulance service, the Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa) set target response times for emergency care, following a process in which the National Ambulance Service was closely consulted.
Hiqa said that both echo and delta calls must have a first responder on the scene within seven minutes and 59 seconds. A first responder can be a paramedic, an advanced paramedic or a trained cardiac first responder. A fully equipped ambulance should then arrive within 18 minutes and 59 seconds.
In response to a question from Cllr Ciaran Brogan at this week’s Regional Health Forum meeting, it emerged that these targets have never been met.
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