Calls for HSE to publish report on ambulance withdrawal

Demands have been made that the HSE publish a review it was supposed to have undertaken into the effects of withdrawing an ambulance from North Cork amid claims that the move could end up costing lives.

The call was made at a county council meeting in Mallow yesterday where one councillor claimed his wife’s life could have been put in serious jeopardy because a paramedic crew got lost on its way to her after she suffered internal bleeding following open heart surgery.

The ambulance, based in Millstreet, was withdrawn by the HSE in 2013 and replaced by a one-person operated rapid response paramedic vehicle, which can not take patients to hospital.