Call for funds to overhaul vital 999 service
Audrey McQuillan made the call as the Health Information Quality Authority prepares to launch a detailed report highlighting a series of dangerous flaws in the service later today.
The death of Ms McQuillan’s brother Wayne, along with other tragedies, led to then health minister, Dr James Reilly, asking HIQA to fast-track a report into the ambulance service by three months due to concerns gaps in the system were putting seriously ill people’s lives further at risk.
Speaking to the Irish Examiner almost a year after her brother’s death, Ms McQuillan said it is her view the service remains under-funded and over-stretched.
Despite stressing she has “no grievance” with paramedics who tried to save her brother’s life, she said the system is at breaking point and putting ill people at risk.
“I have nothing against the ambulance workers or the paramedics, they did their best, but some of their ambulances are falling apart,” she said.“The HSE says they have motorbikes for paramedics who can do what they have to quicker than ambulances, but they can’t lift a person who needs to go to hospital. There needs to be more money pumped into the services.”
Ms McQuillan’s 30-year-old brother Wayne, from Rathmullen Park in Drogheda, Co Louth, died in the early hours of New Year’s Day after being stabbed in the neck and chest.
Despite neighbours phoning 999 at least eight times, it took almost 30 minutes for an ambulance to arrive at the scene – at which point gardaí had already taken Mr McQuillan to Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in the back of their car.
The delay – which was partially due to the fact three ambulances from the hospital were on other call-outs, meaning a fourth vehicle had to travel from Ardee – was one of a cluster of tragic cases involving ambulances at the start of this year.
Among other incidents were the death of 70-year-old Maura Porter, from Inishown in Co Donegal, who lost her life after being hit by a car. An ambulance had taken 50 minutes to arrive, with her son Brendan saying at the time: “We have no question mum would have had a chance of survival if an ambulance had got her to hospital quicker.”
The report on the wider service problems will be published today, and will be the subject of a detailed public meeting between HIQA and the Dáil’s health committee this afternoon.
While the document is not expected to go into significant detail on specific cases, its authors have been tasked with addressing a series of concerns, including:
Whether “acutely ill” people are being responded to in time.
If emergency call-outs are being “properly audited”.
Whether the ambulance service is reacting to address “service user safety incidents”.
If staff “with the appropriate competencies” are working in the system and if they are properly resourced.
The HSE has repeatedly stressed ambulance services are improving and patients are not being put at risk.
However, groups like the National Ambulance Service Representatives Association have warned service gaps and a lack of adequate funding are making it almost impossible for paramedics to do their jobs.
