16 September 2024
By Mary Bermimgham
mary@TheCork.ie
Sinn Féin councillor for Cork City South West, Joe Lynch, has expressed serious concerns over plans by the National Ambulance Service to curtail ambulance cover across county Cork.
File photo of Joe Lynch, a Ballincollig based Cllr, who is a member of Sinn Fein
Cllr. Lynch said:
“The proposal by the National Ambulance Service to reduce ambulance cover across the county will be very worrying news to people in communities right across Cork.
“The men and women that crew the ambulances we rely on work to save lives day-in, day-out. Their work is invaluable, and I want to commend every single one of them.
“This plan to reduce ambulance cover means that lives will be at greater risk due to possible delays to calls; almost half of which are classed as ‘life threatening’ and ‘potentially life threatening’.
“The public have a reasonable expectation that when they dial 999 that an ambulance will arrive within a reasonable time-frame. We can’t have a situation where that isn’t the case.
“Under this plan, West Cork – which has four ambulances – will lose one each day; from Monday to Thursday.
“North Cork, which has five ambulances, will lose one three days of week and two on a Wednesday. This is not acceptable.
“It is important to note that ambulances respond to calls far beyond their base and can be called anywhere, so the loss of an ambulance in Macroom on a given day is the loss of ambulance right across Cork city and county.
“Demands on the ambulance service are increasing, and it is clear that more resources are needed; not less. This is a fact recently acknowledged by the National Ambulance Service themselves, in response to figures which show that Cork had the longest ambulance wait times across the State.
“I am calling on for this plan to be shelved, and for there to be proper engagement with workers and their representatives to ensure no community in Cork suffers a loss of service.
“I have further written to the HSE to set out the very serious concerns I – and all of us should have – at the loss of ambulance cover.
“Sense must prevail and this plan must be taken off the table urgently.”