Minister says no decision made on Ballaghaderreen base
Cllr. Laurence Fallon, Denis Naughten TD & Cllr. Dominic Connolly at the ambulance base in Roscommon Town, which is now the only lifeline for patients needing emergency access to an A&E which is officially over an hour away.
Denis Naughten has called on the Government representatives locally to re-double their efforts to secure the ambulance base for West Roscommon after he was informed by the Health Minister that there are no plans to provide an additional ambulance and no decision has been made on the relocation of an existing ambulance to West Roscommon.
The local TD, raised the issue in the Dáil last week, and said that he was “disappointed with the Ministers response”.
“It must also be remembered that as a result of the closure of Roscommon A&E Department people living in County Roscommon are now further away from a fully functioning A&E than those living in any other county according to an analysis by NUI Maynooth’s National Institute for Regional and Spatial Analysis”.
“The average journey time to an A&E department for the whole of County Roscommon is 40minutes but in many areas that journey time is closer to an hour including Castleplunkett at 56 minutes; Castlerea at 54 minutes; Tulsk, Ballymoe and Strokestown at 53 minutes; Elphin at 48 minutes and Frenchpark at 47 minutes”.
“Quite a number of these areas could be serviced by a fully functioning ambulance base in West Roscommon” said Denis Naughten
“The Dáil reply from Minister Reilly, endorses the previous reply which I received from the National Director of the Ambulance Service last February and it seems that we are still some time away from any conclusive decision on an ambulance service for West Roscommon”
“And it now seems that this still won’t mean that the ambulance will actually be based in the West Roscommon area,” outlined Denis Naughten.
“As someone who has campaigned on this issue for over a decade, who opposed the location of the ambulance base in Knock and who has continued to fight to have a permanent ambulance service based in West Roscommon, I’m calling on the Government members locally to re- double their efforts to secure an ambulance base for the area as soon as possible,” concluded Denis Naughten.
Original reply from Ambulance Service: http://issuu.com/exsite/docs/ambulance/1#share
Copy of Dail Reply from last week:
QUESTION NO: 386
DÁIL QUESTION addressed to the Minister for Health (Dr. James Reilly)
by Deputy Denis Naughten
for WRITTEN ANSWER on 08/05/2012
* To ask the Minister for Health his views on the proposals to develop a new ambulance base at Ballaghadereen, County Roscommon; when this service will be operational; if this service will be operated from the existing ambulance and staffing allocation to County Roscommon or will it be an additional ambulance and crew; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
– Denis Naughten T.D.
REPLY.
The National Ambulance Service (NAS) has advised me that it is currently examining ways to improve its deployment of emergency resources in the Roscommon area, in order to enhance service levels and performance against national standards.
Emergency activity levels in the Roscommon area remain static. Therefore, the NAS will seek to use existing resources more efficiently in order to improve response times to the current level of calls. To this end, the NAS is examining, in consultation with staff representatives, the introduction of tactical deployment from ambulance stations and suitable emergency dispatch points in west Roscommon.
Work is progressing, under the terms of the Croke Park Agreement, on the introduction of the type of new work practices that would allow this service development to proceed. Although no decisions have been made at this stage, Ballaghadereen is one of the locations under consideration in this process.