Paramedic staff shortages 'becoming far too familiar'

Concerns are being raised about a shortage of paramedic staff and a potential knock-on effect on patient safety.

It comes after a Garda Sergeant in County Meath was forced to drive an ambulance with an injured child to hospital last week, because of a shortage of paramedic staff on duty.

The incident happened near Dunsany after a car containing three children and a woman veered off the road and dropped 30 feet before hitting a tree.

One of the ambulances at the scene had a sole crew member which meant the Garda had to jump behind the wheel.

Mick Dixon, National Chairman of the National Ambulance Service Representative Association, said incidents like this are becoming too common.

He said: "The HSE will come back and say that these are isolated incidents and I suggest to you now that these incidents are becoming far too familiar.

"You have had the case of a footballer in Carlow who waited for far too long a time for an ambulance because of delays.

"In the north-east you've had a patient brought into the hospital in a van, also in the north-east one was packed into the back of a garda van.

"And we know there recenlty in Donegal, we know about a mother and child with the paramedic in the car and another garda drove an ambulance."