Co Cork GPs urged to support action on ambulances
They expressed anger at a letter they received from NAS to a previous request for an improved emergency service to cover Cobh and the Great Island areas.
Last December, members of the county council’s Cobh/Glanmire municipal district sent a letter to NAS asking a number of questions about the lack of cover for the Great Island area.
NAS’s reply said it published monthly response time targets in line with HIQA recommendations, but admitted these were not broken down by districts, such as Cobh where no ambulance has been based for many years.
NAS said it commissioned a capacity review, which will “enable the most appropriate utilisation of ambulance services to meet target requirements” and expects it to be published shortly.
The letter was greeted with disdain by several councillors, not least Sinead Sheppard (FG) who called it “a cop-out”.
“My aunt’s two-year-old child had a seizure, went blue and was non-responsive. It took the ambulance 47 minutes and 30 seconds to arrive, because I timed it. They (emergency service personnel) were telling us they were on their way and what to do, but this is a very serious situation as there is no proper ambulance based in East Cork, let alone Cobh,” she said.
“Somebody is going to die if this continues, and maybe there are people who have died that we don’t know about. This letter is an insult to all of us.”
Councillor Kieran McCarthy (Ind) said: “We are on an island and we need this [a proper ambulance service] more than most other towns.
“We need to get the local GPs on board, they’re even driving people to hospital themselves. They have to rally behind us.”
Cathal Rasmussen (Lab) said it would appropriate to contact GPs formally for support.
Ms Sheppard maintained the GPs may have to set up 24-hour cover themselves if NAS does not relent and provide a better service.
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