MS patient misses appointments over lack of ambulance

A seriously incapacitated man has missed three hospital appointments due to the lack of a dedicated patient transfer vehicle service in Clare.

The family of MS sufferer 42-year-old Donnacha Rynne is frustrated with the lack of an adequate intermediate transfer vehicle.

Mr Rynne who also has mild cerebral palsy, cannot travel by car from Miltown Malbay for a regular hospital appointments at the Mid-Western Regional Hospital, Limerick.

His mother Anne claimed an intermediate ambulance vehicle failed to show for two appointments and arrived late for a third. A non-HSE operator is providing transport for his next appointment on Jun 4.

She said there was no prior contact to inform her the ambulance would not be attend or be late.

As soon as she received the appointments, she phoned the ambulance service giving them several weeks’ notice.

“Each time I was told that there was no guarantee that there would be an ambulance.

“While I understand that emergencies take priority, my big concern about the whole debacle is that Clare was eliminated from the patient transfer service without any notification or advice or communication.

“This is totally unacceptable and downright insulting to all patients like Donnacha who are so vulnerable.

“I would like to know who made this decision and why.”

In response to a recent Dáil question, the operations performance manager for the ambulance service in Limerick admitted they operated without an intermediate care service in Co Clare, and priority is given to emergencies.

“We do endeavour where possible to accommodate patients, however, depending on the demand on any given day, this might not always be possible.”

He added: “A review of the intermediate care services within the Mid-Western Region is underway, and I am hopeful of a positive outcome. ”

Acknowledging Donnacha received very good care from a team of seven trained health professionals, Ms Rynne had asked if Clare had been removed from the Mid-West.

The HSE stated some emergency ambulances are used for intermediate care patients who required non-emergency transfers.

“If an emergency occurs at the same time as an ambulance is booked to do a patient transfer the emergency is always given priority. This has led to some cancellations for non-emergency patients for which the ambulance service apologises for that inconvenience,” the HSE stated.