Hill wants rural fire teams to have own ambulances

A suggestion that an ambulance be added to the arsenal of the fire service in Castlepollard was made by Cllr Paddy Hill at the April meeting of the Municipal District of Mullingar Kinnegad.

The Fianna Fáil man said that if this were done, it would facilitate rescue and movement of patients in rural isolated areas.

“And while I have mentioned specifically Castlepollard, I also believe that in all rural areas, there is a need for such a service,” Cllr Hill stated, adding that he was aware of cases in which people in rural areas have waited for up to two hours for an ambulance to arrive.

Cllr Hill said that while the fire service members - who are highly trained – can reach almost any part of North Westmeath within ten minutes, they cannot move a patient because they don't have an ambulance to do so.

“If you're lucky enough to live in Dublin, and there's something that happens to you, you can be in a hospital in five minutes. But if you're unlucky enough to live where I live, it could be two hours.”

He proposed that a letter setting out the case be sent to the relevant minister’s department, and that the letter also be sent to this area’s Oireachtas members.

The written response from the district stated that there are currently no systems in place or formal agreements between the Department of Housing, Local Government & Heritage, and the Health Service Executive/National Ambulance Service (HSE/NAS) to provide an ambulance service to a retained fire brigade outside of the Dublin fulltime service.

“There is no other fire service in the Republic of Ireland running an operational ambulance/paramedic response service from a fire station. In the event of an emergency, such as severe weather events, the Civil Defence have been on-hand to aid in movement of people in rural areas,” the response concluded.