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| The people of Monaghan fear for their lives |
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County Monaghan Community Alliance Statement 11/05/09.
Ambulance Delay Unacceptable.
The delay in the arrival of an ambulance to deal with the emergency at Sliabh Beagh Hotel, Knockatallon, on Friday night, May 1st is totally unacceptable to the people of Monaghan and once again shows that patients are being put at risk in order to save money.
Our sympathies are with the family and friends of the late Mr. Boyle, from Donegal, who died as the result of a heart attack, while he attended his sister-in-law’s birthday party in Sliabh Beagh. Nurses at the party carried out CPR successfully but, due to the delay of getting him to a hospital, he suffered a further attack and was pronounced dead at the scene.
When an ambulance was summoned the caller was informed that the Monaghan ambulance was on its way to Cavan and that an ambulance would be dispatched from Dundalk. It turned out that this ambulance was already close to Castleblayney and was directed to proceed to Knockatallon, where it arrived 37 minutes later, according to the HSE (42 minutes according to locals). At one hour and five minutes the Monaghan ambulance also arrived on its way back from Cavan. However both were too late to convey the patient to Monaghan General Hospital, never mind Cavan, and this raises great concerns about the promised ‘better services’ for the people of Monaghan and is further proof that the plan will not work.
The Alliance would question the following:
We were told that there was an extra ambulance for Monaghan and that this would mean two ambulances on duty at night. Where was the second ambulance or is the Dundalk ambulance counted as the second ambulance?
We were told that we would have a ‘First Responder’, who would get to the scene first in a 4 X 4 and have the ability to administer thrombolysis. Where was the ‘First Responder’?
The HSE now claims that: ‘The ambulance service is not a static service. Emergency Ambulance crews are mobile and will respond to assist where required’. What does this mean. Are they saying that the ambulance drives about the roads waiting for a call-out? Are they saying that the ambulance could be based at Castleblayney, Carrickmacross or Clones and respond to an emergency when requested? Whatever way you look at it, it is far from satisfactory and does not work.
The HSE might claim that the extra ambulance and First responder will not be put in place until the hospital is taken ‘Off Call’. Surely they would need to be in place, for a number of months at least, prior to taking the hospital ‘Off Call’ in order to test the system and to attempt to solve the problems arising. Otherwise we are going into an untried and untested situation, which may result in many further deaths. However they likely see it as a cost saving exercise.
Some months back we advised the HSE to get their sympathy cards ready, as they would need them again. Their statement, issued last week, offers their sympathies. Unfortunately we are likely to get more of these in the coming weeks.
The Sliabh Beagh Hotel management has sent a letter of complaint to the HSE and has conveyed its objections to the delay, which gave this man a much poorer chance of survival.
Further information:
Peadar McMahon,
Chairman Community Alliance.
Mobile: 0860443300
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| Peadar |
11/05/2009
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