HSE under fire for proposing ambulance cover cuts

THE HSE has been accused of “playing Russian Roulette with people’s lives” after proposing to cut night cover at almost half of its 15 ambulance bases in Cork and Kerry.

Under the proposals, only two of the three ambulance stations serving Youghal, Midleton and Fermoy would remain open any weekday night. Each one would close on a rotating basis.

Similar rotating closures would apply in West Cork, with only two of the four stations at Clonakilty, Skibbereen, Bantry and Castletownbere operating at night.

Only two of the stations serving Mallow, Kanturk, Millstreet and Macroom areas would remain operational, while Caherciveen and Kenmare would rotate cover on the two Kerry peninsulas. Listowel and Dingle ambulance stations would alternate to cover each other’s areas.

The Labour Relations Commission has been trying to broker an agreement.

However, SIPTU ambulance crews last night voted to reject the proposals to close stations on a rotating basis, which would result in some areas having to seek help from bases much further away.

Ted Kenny, SIPTU assistant branch organiser, said his members were “incensed” by the proposals which would put people’s lives at risk. “The HSE wants to leave huge areas of Cork and Kerry without the ambulance cover they currently enjoy. The public should be very wary of what the HSE is proposing.”

The HSE said it put forward the proposals after SIPTU demanded it eliminate an “on-call service” which SIPTU claims saw members working 16 or 17 hours at a time. SIPTU claims this has health and safety implications for both crews and patients.

The HSE said the new proposals were put forward in order to prevent ambulance crews carrying out a threat to withdraw their on-call services.

The union said instead of cutting services the HSE should increase the number of ambulance personnel.