National Ambulance Services responds to Laois councillor's criticism

The National Ambulance Service (NAS) has responded to criticism by a Laois councillor over how it dispatches its ambulances.

Cllr Tommy Mulligan has said his father's life was only saved by a nearby ambulance after a heart attack in Portlaoise GAA grounds. He levelled strong criticism of the NAS's system of sending ambulances on non-emergency duties, leaving longer times for Laois patients to wait if a local ambulance is called to another county.

"This is putting the public at risk," he asserted.

He said that he speaks on behalf of local paramedics, who he said want the old system back. Read his full statement here. 

The NAT gave this response to the Leinster Express / Laois Live.

"The National Ambulance Service (NAS) operates from over 110 locations throughout Ireland. Our services are delivered by a skilled and committed workforce of over 2,500 staff members.

"The NAS operates on a national basis and mobilises responses to calls for assistance based on patient clinical needs, always prioritising more serious medical problems over lower acuity patients, and ambulances may travel to and be dispatched from various locations irrespective of their base as they are not confined to work in geographical areas.

"In the past six years, NAS has grown by approximately 23% in terms of Whole Time Equivalents (WTEs), while a 2023 staff census showed that the NAS has the lowest turnover of staff across the entire HSE.

"Demand via the 999 service has increased by 25% since 2019, with growth in 2024 up by 9% from 2023. In 2024, the NAS responded to approximately 430,000 emergency calls, an increase of almost 40,000 calls on the previous year. Despite this increase, the NAS continued to show improvements in terms of response time key performance indicators in the HSE National Service Plan," a spokesperson said.

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"Ambulances may travel to and be dispatched from various locations irrespective of their base as they are not confined to work in geographical areas. The current deployment model is designed around international best practice and has eliminated previous practices where the nearest ambulance was not always dispatched due to former legacy boundaries," the NAS also said.