THE withdrawal of a special response vehicle from service could jeopardise the lives of seriously ill patients. The car, used by the Advanced Paramedic Emergency Response Unit has been taken off the road and its loss, according to a health service source, could be a matter of life and death. “The chances of survival for someone in cardiac arrest are vastly reduced if there is no advanced paramedic at the scene. They can do everything for a patient that can be done in A and E,” the source told the Limerick Post.
Now the paramedics have prepared a report showing the service was in huge demand during its 40 week trial period.
Obtained by Deputy Willie O’Dea who shared it with the Limerick Post, the report shows that by December, almost half of all calls for emergency help were answered by the special vehicle. Of 4,518 calls to the ambulance service between September and December last year, the advanced paramedics were dispatched in 1,985 instances.
Each of the advanced paramedics has been trained at a cost of almost €100,000 per person to qualify them in administering lifesaving injections in the case of heart failure and equipping them to give morphine and other major pain-relieving drugs to people who have suffered serious injury,
With the withdrawal of the advance vehicle, the specially trained personnel will be redeployed to the general ambulance service.
“The National Ambulance Service is already paying the wages of the Advanced Paramedics and just not utilising this resource to its maximum benefit for service provision to the public means that highly trained people are not available to deal with emergencies they are needed for,” a source told the Limerick Post.
“Being rostered with an ambulance crew means that advanced paramedics can be sent to transfer patients between hospitals or to bring them to other hospitals for tests. You don’t need an advanced paramedic to sit for hours with a patient who is waiting for 15 minutes with a consultant
“Meanwhile, there is someone in cardiac arrest somewhere who needs the service and isn’t getting it because the advance paramedic is tied up with the ambulance.”
It makes no sense, according to Deputy O’Dea to withdraw the service.
“I’m very anxious to get this matter moved. I want to see these services provided in this region,” he said.
The use of the car has been discontinued following a trial period as part of a reconfiguration to make best use of resources.
