2,500 patients ‘at risk’ every year over shortage of ambulances

THE lives of up to 2,500 emergency patients are put at risk every year in Dublin because an overstretched service has no ambulances available.

Emergency ambulances in the greater Dublin area are provided for jointly by Dublin Fire Brigade and the East Coast Area Health Board.

However, a log of the number of calls for which neither service has an available ambulance predicts almost 2,500 patients will be forced to wait unnecessarily this year.