Helipad needed to cope with disasters

CORK is missing a vital facility needed to cope with a major disaster, it was claimed last night.

Former Lord Mayor Colm Burke criticised the delay in reinstating a helicopter landing pad at Cork University Hospital (CUH), the country’s only level one trauma centre.

The landing site was removed three years ago to make way for a €15 million accident and emergency unit.

Helicopters airlifting patients to CUH are currently landing at Cork Airport where patients are met by an ambulance for the five-mile transfer.

Cllr Burke said major roadworks at the Kinsale Road roundabout close to the airport could delay mercy dashes.

But he said he feared the worst if a major disaster occurred.

“Do we discuss the lack of a helipad before or after a major disaster,” he said.

However, Dr Stephen Cusack, CUH’s director of emergency medicine, said providing a helipad is not a priority.

“We have lost an item of infrastructure and it should be replaced,” Dr Cusak said. “We have identified at least one site on the campus that will take search and rescue helicopters. But Beaumont Hospital doesn’t have a helipad.

“And Limerick lost a helipad to make way for a new intensive care unit. “I would prefer if people highlighted the country’s lack of an air ambulance service.”

A Health Service Executive spokesperson said providing a helipad is one of a number of projects submitted by CUH management for possible funding as part of the next round of National Development Plan funding.

Alice O’Sullivan, the emergency management officer responsible for coordinating the Cork Joint Major Emergency Plan, said the helipad was an issue for the HSE.

“The Cork Joint Major Emergency Plan is not site specific,” she said.

“It is generic - it doesn’t go into the pre-determined roles that each agency would have. Each agency would have their own plans.

“A great deal of the plan details how a disaster site would be organised, the protocol as to how each agency would respond to an emergency, the control and command structure.

“It also includes cost details.”

The issue is expected to be discussed at the next meeting of the Cork Joint Emergency Planning Group on October 21.

The Cork Joint Major Emergency Plan was last updated in 2003.

Contact details for key personnel was updated in February 2004.

The emergency plan was last put on alert in March 2002 for an emergency landing of a KLM jet at Cork Airport. It was last tested in March of this year during a simulated bus crash on the Youghal bypass.