Lives being put at risk by government’s failure to support ambulance services in the North West

Sinn Féin TD for Sligo, Leitrim, north Roscommon, and south Donegal, Martin Kenny has said the government’s failure to support ambulance services and paramedics is putting lives at risk.  

His comments come as a Sinn Féin motion is debated before the Dáil this evening (Tuesday, February 28), which calls on the government to urgently publish a multi-annual capacity and workforce plan to meet the needs of patients and improve the ability of the National Ambulance Service and Dublin Fire Brigade to save lives.

Teachta Kenny said, “Sinn Féin’s Health spokesperson David Cullinane has brought forward a motion that calls on the government to take urgent action to address the crisis in ambulance response times. 

“According to the HSE’s own standards, 80% of life-threatening incidents should be responded to by an ambulance within 19 minutes. Yet the average response time for life-threatening incidents in the north west is 22 minutes – an increase of 22% since 2019. 

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“A further breakdown of these targets has shown that only 64% of cardiac arrest calls across the west were answered in 19 minutes, with 46% of other life-threatening incidents being responded to within the 19 minute window in 2022.  The target for these call categories to be responded to within that 19 minute window are 80% and 50% respectively. 

“These figures show that the western region is falling far short of meeting these targets.  It is clear that a serious plan is needed if the Ambulance Service is to reverse the trend and improve outcomes.

“The Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly has failed to support our frontline paramedics, and in Budget 2023 Ministers Paschal Donohoe and Michael McGrath chose not to provide the funding needed to reverse the trend in ambulance response times.

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“This has led to the burnout of frontline paramedics and has increased risk for patients due to increased response times. The increases in response times are stark and show that the Ambulance Service is under serious strain and pressure; exactly what paramedics have been warning for years.

“The National Ambulance Service currently has approximately 2,000 paramedics, and their workforce plan lays out a need for more than 1,300 more paramedics by the end of 2024 and a need to double the staffing composition to more than 4,000 by 2026.

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“The National Ambulance Service needs more than 3,000 paramedics in the next four years to meet these targets, and they have warned that if these targets are not met, they ‘will have insufficient resources to respond to the projected demand, and as a result, 19-minute performance would be considerably less than 40%’.

“This is dangerous and is putting people’s lives at risk. Sinn Féin is calling on the government to urgently publish a multi-annual capacity and workforce plan to meet the needs of patients and improve the ability of the National Ambulance Service and Dublin Fire Brigade to save lives.”