Ambulance safety issues ‘can be quickly overcome’
The six ambulances, purchased at a cost of almost €900,000 between 2012 and 2014, pose a risk of injury to staff because of difficulties loading and unloading patients due to the height of the vehicle base.
Yesterday Mr Coveney said the Defence Forces were working with the ambulance manufacturers on developing a “practical design-based solution”, which he said he did not anticipate running to “hundreds of thousands of euro”.
“It doesn’t involve a total redesign,” he said, adding that it may be possible to solve by adding a hoist system.
He said he became aware of the issue in recent days, and that the Defence Forces had completed a review in December into the problems posed by the vehicles after staff raised concerns last year.
He said he was not aware of anyone suffering an injury on foot of using the ambulances, which are specially-designed rough terrain vehicles.
The Forces’ Advisory Group assessment on safety concluded in December that the risk of back injury was so great that the ambulances’ role should be reconsidered.
These included one medic sometimes having to carry the weight of the patient and the stretcher.
The Health and Safety assessment was released to RTÉ News under the Freedom of Information Act.
PDFORRA general secretary Gerry Rooney said the ambulance chassis was essentially a truck to which an ambulance system had been fitted and the base was too high.
Three years ago the Department of Defence requested tenders to supply four-wheel drive ambulances.
Two ambulances were bought in 2012 and a further four last year, with each costing more than €148,000.
Mr Coveney said the problem of loading and unloading patients on to the ambulances was not noticed when the first two vehicles were bought in 2012.
To deal with this problem in the short term, the safety group recommended that only staff of a higher level of physical stature should be rostered for the new ambulances.
However, the assessment found that ultimately the ambulances exposed staff to such risk of injury that their future role should be reconsidered.
The Defence Forces said it was working closely with the manufactures to come up with a solution to the problem.
Mr Coveney said once the issue was resolved, the ambulances would be “very useful vehicles”.
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