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Save Our Ambulance Service in West Cork via Facebook.com

People of West Cork protesting the loss of fourth ambulance

The four-day long protest will see demonstrators push a stretcher bed from Skibbereen to Cork University Hospital.

PEOPLE IN WEST Cork angry over the loss of their fourth ambulance are to push a stretcher bed from Skibbereen to Cork University Hospital in protest later this week.

The four-day long protest will take place from 17 – 20 October (Wednesday – Saturday) and will involve a group of relay teams taking it in turns to push the bed.

The protest will kick off in Skibereen and, in the final leg, will be joined by protesters from West Cork who will join the stretcher from the roundabout at Dunnes in Bishopstown.

The walk will be done over 4=four phases:

Phase 1 – 17 October – Skibbereen to Clonakilty – 32 km

Phase 2 – 18 October – Clonakilty to Innishannon – 28 km

Phase 3 – 19 October – Innishannon to Dunnes at 18 km

Phase 4 – 2o October – Dunnes to Cork University Hospital

For more details, see the Facebook page of Save Our Ambulance Service in West Cork

Read: Ambulance cuts “putting lives at risk”>

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25 Comments
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    Mute Brian Houlihan
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    Oct 15th 2012, 10:55 AM

    Hopefully they get as much support as the Quinn’s did.

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    Mute Mark Dalt
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    Oct 15th 2012, 10:58 AM

    €3.5 BILLION WILL BE PAID TO BONDHOLDERS BY FINE GAEL BEFORE 2013.

    44
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    Mute Ryan oneill
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    Oct 15th 2012, 11:02 AM

    How many ambulances/hospital beds/sna’s/Garda/teachers /nurses and pyrite homes would that fix???

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    Mute Mark Dalt
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    Oct 15th 2012, 11:21 AM

    In total, it would finance €70 billion (10 years worth of those services you mention).

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    Mute Petr Tarasov
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    Oct 15th 2012, 11:33 AM

    But we also need people like Quinn and his spawn to face up to what they did.

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    Mute Mark Dalt
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    Oct 15th 2012, 1:00 PM

    Mr. Tarasov,

    It was Brian Lenihan who guaranteed the Banks. The Banks could’ve been allowed fail like in Iceland.

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    Mute Petr Tarasov
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    Oct 15th 2012, 1:53 PM

    @ Quinn shoe-shine boy Mark Dalt

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    Mute mattoid
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    Oct 15th 2012, 1:56 PM

    @Mark
    Leaving Lenihan and the bank guarantee out of it, the insurance buying public would still be caught for a bill of almost €1bn through the ICF because of Quinn’s greed!

    http://www.rte.ie/news/2012/1010/729m-paid-into-insurance-fund-to-cover-quinn-business.html

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    Mute Mark Dalt
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    Oct 15th 2012, 3:19 PM

    The Insurance companies should also have been allowed to fail and restructure themselves. Again, the state propped them up by imposing a levy. This is the problem with Ireland: Right-wing governments are elected time after time and they cannot govern without screwing up. The real alternatives are staring at you in the face.

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    Mute ManOnTheStreet
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    Oct 15th 2012, 3:34 PM

    There is no left alternative in Ireland. People are still along way from trusting SF fully. ULA are proving themselves to be as corrupt as the right and they don’t even have any power.

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    Mute mattoid
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    Oct 15th 2012, 3:40 PM

    A little off topic here, but the ICF is not there to prop up insurance companies, it is to ensure that genuine claims are still paid following the collapse of an insurance company.

    Some of these claims can come in years later (especially in the case of professional indemnity insurance, which QI disastrously got involved in).

    The problem with QI was that it was effectively being operated as a vast pyramid scheme, where current premiums were needed to pay past claims. Of course like all pyramid schemes it was destined to crash somewhere down the line, a point not lost on the financial regulator.

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    Mute mattoid
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    Oct 15th 2012, 3:43 PM

    But apparently lost on all the Quinn fanboys…

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    Mute StopNKambulanceCuts
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    Oct 15th 2012, 4:58 PM

    Cutting ambulances has nothing to do with the Quinns. It has everything to do with the banks however. We have sunk €65bn into our banks at the insistence of the ECB to save other EU banks from contagion. How about saving our people from dying?

    North Kildare was the first rural area to be affected by a one day cut. We have a petition started online and in the local shops. We don’t intend to let this government away with this

    It doesn’t take a genius to know that cutting an ambulance will result in death. Fine Gael’s Minister for Health may be happy to play Russian Roulette with our lives but we are not.

    Best of luck to the West Cork Campaign.

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    Mute Mark Dalt
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    Oct 15th 2012, 10:48 PM

    EVERYBODY OUT ON THE STREETS. UNITE AGAINST ONE COMMON ENEMY: THE GOVERNMENT’S PAYMENT OF BONDHOLDERS.

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    Mute Ronan_Murphy
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    Oct 15th 2012, 12:58 PM

    The sad reality of voting FG and FF religiously for decades.

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    Mute Bernadette Dunne
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    Oct 15th 2012, 1:37 PM

    Reilly is the Minister of Death he has done nothing but Cut Back on Essential Services since taking office Closing A&E’s cutting ambulance services
    What happens when there is a call for an Ambulance and all Ambulances are out on calls ? Well either the patient is left to wait which is not an option and should not be OR the emergency looks to the next ambulance depot to see if they can take the call which takes a unit out of commission for that area or they call in the Private Ambulance which is an Expense which seemingly is quite expensive and can exceed the cost of keeping that Ambulance which they intend to cut in service Where do they justify such moves without the maths adding up Reilly has too much of a vested interest to be of any use to the public services

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    Mute Bernadette Dunne
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    Oct 15th 2012, 1:43 PM

    To the Action Committee Keep up the good work and continue the fight for life and remember These Shower in Government have a limited time in Power and Remember the people of Ireland Are the Real Power and we will be asked to use our power soon with our vote in the polling stations Stay Strong and let the politicians know you are there and staying

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    Mute Anne De Croix
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    Oct 15th 2012, 3:12 PM

    Thank you Bernadette. I will pass on the encouragement to all involved!
    I tell you, all this stuff about bailouts and bondholders and the state of the nation- it’s a different story when the reality of the extent of these cuts hits home in local areas. It’s a sin the way the Govt is trying to spin this cutback to make it look like they are helping us. Already people are waiting 4 or 5 hours for an ambulance to come after making a 999 call. ……..That is positively medieval. I would bet my bottom dollar Edna hasn’t ever had to face the possibility of a five hour wait for an ambulance in his local area………….

    It makes me so angry…….

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    Mute Bernadette Dunne
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    Oct 15th 2012, 7:58 PM

    Reilly and Kenny closed our A&E here in Roscommon in July 2011 on false figures and lies saying the HIQA recommended the closure Well we now know it was all lies We now have approx 2 hours of a journey to the nearest A&E DEPT so I live the nightmare of these medieval cuts and wish you all the best in your fight for what we are all entitled to as human beings If we treat a dog as bad we would be classed as criminals so I put Reilly up there as an abuser of the sick

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    Mute Alan Barry
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    Oct 15th 2012, 1:04 PM

    This is not the full story regarding the ambulance reconfiguration in West Cork at all. A fourth ambulance will not be lost, it is to be replaced with a paramedic/advanced paramedic in a paramedic car. This has all the equipment that an ambulance would have, just without the capacity to transport.

    As the vast majority of life saving interventions will be carried out at the scene of the incident, it is the paramedic and the equipment that are most important; and these will still be present.

    The reason these changed are needed are to prevent HSE paramedics in the West Cork area working up to 24 hour shifts. Who wants a Paramedic that has been awake for 24 hours looking after them?!

    And the evidence of this can be seen last week, when a paramedic crashed an ambulance in Castletownbere having worked 22 hours straight and falling asleep at the wheel.

    http://www.independent.ie/national-news/ambulance-crashes-after-22-hours-on-go-3258014.html

    THIS is why the system needs to be changed, so that paramedics will not be on call, and will only work 12 hour shifts.

    Would you prefer a fully functioning, well rested paramedic to attend to you/your mother/father in a paramedic car with all the necessary equipment, or someone that is falling asleep at the wheel of a “full” ambulance?

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    Mute mattoid
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    Oct 15th 2012, 2:11 PM

    An AP in a rapid response car is a welcome asset which is an important element in the overall pre-hospital care system, but it can never replace a land ambulance.

    When the idea was first brought up it was generally acknowledged that it needed to be an additional resource to work hand in hand with an ambulance, and should never replace the ambulance. Many patients still need immediate/urgent transport to hospital for definitive care, regardless of any AP intervention.

    Unfortunately it has been used as a justification to cut ambulances in recent years, west Cork being a good case in point.

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    Mute Alan Barry
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    Oct 15th 2012, 4:09 PM

    Mattoid, I actually do agree completely.. Something definitely needs to change, and they’re not going to magic up the money to have rostered only ambulance crews for 4 full time ambulances unfortunately. Paramedics on 24 hour shifts are no good to anyone with no rest.

    But of course, transport i.e. a full ambulance would be the most desirable!

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    Mute Emma Challacombe
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    Oct 15th 2012, 5:35 PM

    We In west Cork are very aware of ALL the details Alan, yes there will be a rapid response vehicle to REPLACE the patient carrying vehicle, but that is not acceptable, as the RR cannot carry a patient to hospital, (a minimum of 1.2 hours away) we very much welcome the RR but along side existing ambulance not as a replacement, West cork will have 3 patient carrying vehicles, a rapid response vehicle and a transfer ambulance from 8am-8pm however will only have 2 patient carrying vehicles, and RR after 8pm, that is a difference of 2 vehicles, one being a vital patient carrying vehicle to transport to hospital, there is no way, no matter how you look at it, ( believe me when i tell you we have spent over a year going over the details with a fine toothed comb) they can meet HIQA standards and guarantee the upmost safety of the people

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    Mute George Vladisavljevic
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    Oct 15th 2012, 5:51 PM

    Hi Alan,

    The esponse car was brought in to keep the switch from ‘on call’ to proper shifts for the paramedics. BTW, the HSE has been delaying putting the paramedics on shifts for over 6 years now and this is being brought in only because the labour court rulled that the on-call system was no longer acceptable.

    In regards to the response vehicle, it is only crewed by one paramedic. When you say “just without the capacity to transport”, how will the the NAS achieve their goal of having a patient carrying vehicle on the scene for life threatening situations within 19 minutes (their standard to achieve) with one less casualty carrying vehicle on the road.

    I would also like to know how it is the Skibbereen ambulance has been chosen? It has the 2nd highest actual 999 call out in west Cork after Clonakilty.

    We all agree that the on call system has to go, but the response car was not brought in order to increase service to the people but to make the switch over to shift work cost neutral. This is a result of a decision between the labour court, the HSE and the unions to keep in cost neutral.

    How could one car with one paramedic who cannot bring you to the hospital be better than 2 paramedics in an ambulance who can bring you to the hospital? The HSE and the NAS also state that some patients can be treated on the scene before transport but what is wrong with treating them in the back of the ambulance (instead of a puddle) on the way to the hospital.

    The HSE and the NAS are removing ambulances and replacing them with cars in order to save money and not to improve the service and to save lives. Why do they not provide the cars to act in support of existing services.

    They also claim that they are not removing ambulances from stations. This technically is true, but they are leaving them parked in stations over night and repalcing them with cars.

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    Mute Kevin Nelson
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    Oct 15th 2012, 1:19 PM

    Did they get their advanced paramedic yet??

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