Emergency ambulances response times worsening, says Laois TD

Midlands ambulance emergency response times are getting longer due to a lack of resources, a Laois TD has said.

Deputy Brian Stanley says figures obtained by Sinn Féin this week show that the response times have increased by 45% in the past two years.

“50% of the emergency callouts should be responded to within 19 minutes. However, in the Midlands the response times for emergency calls has increased from an average of 20 minutes to 28 minutes. This compares to an average of 21 minutes in the Eastern Region,” Deputy Stanley explained. 

“Despite the best efforts of ambulance personnel, response times continue to deteriorate. The crux of the matter is that we have only half the number of ambulances that Scotland have, despite having a similar population, and our service is understaffed,’’ he said. 

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“Not enough ambulance personnel are being trained and recruited and it is estimated that an extra 2,000 staff need to be recruited over the next five years,” said Deputy Stanley. 

He says the number of people being recruited is not keeping pace with the amount of personnel that are retiring or leaving.

“Measures are also needed to improve recruitment and retention of staff. I have been raising this consistently over the past few years with the HSE and the National Ambulance Service,” said Deputy Stanley. 

“The HSE and the National Ambulance Service need to redouble their efforts to encourage people to take up training for positions, in order to deal with the shortfall in staff. Government also needs to budget for a significant increase in the number of ambulances in the State,’’ he said.