Kildare TD: 'Ambulance wait times and lack of paramedics is becoming a medical emergency'

A Kildare-based TD has said that ambulance wait times and lack of paramedics is turning into a nationwide medical emergency.

The comments were made by Sinn Féin (SF) TD Réada Cronin.

It follows after the North Kildare TD yesterday said that the cost of school uniforms 'are the straw breaking the camel’s back' in cost-of-living crisis.

Ms Cronin, who is linked with the creation of the Maynooth Community First Responders, said that paramedics are 'overworked, understaffed and undervalued' by the current government.  

She said: "The response-time figures released by the HSE to SF Health spokesman David Cullinane are worrying for our overworked service providers and the public alike.

"Response times to life-threatening callouts completed within the 19-minute time frame are down from 50 per cent to nearly 40 per cent, when the target in 2021 was 70 per cent."

Réada Cronin TD, Sinn Féin. Pic Supplied.

Ms Cronin continued: "Response times to the most serious cardiac and respiratory callouts in the 19-minute timeframe are down by 5 per cent from 76 per cent to 71 per cent in June: the target here is 80 per cent.

"Bear in mind we have such high rate of respiratory disease in the state, ever before Covid-19, with long waiting lists to see one of the too-few consultants and the highest rate of hospitalisation for Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

"Worryingly for the public and our excellent ambulance operators and paramedics, these response times are projected to continue to drop below HIQA standards.

"We know emergency callouts are taking longer because the ambulance service is understaffed and has been for far too long."

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'MAKES ZERO SENSE'

She further said that the govt is not taking proper care of the people that the average person depends on to care for them in an emergency...

"This makes zero sense for public health; in 2021 alone, the Ambulance Service spent €18.8m on overtime, with two-thirds of paramedics working significant overtime every month.

"That’s unfair to them and to the public who depend on them to respond as quickly as possible."

Commenting on the govt's failure to train and retain the number of paramedics necessary to staff the service, she said: "The Ambulance Service needs around 2,000 more paramedics in the next five years, and about half of them are needed right now, yet only 32 paramedics enrolled in training in 2020, while 83 left the Ambulance Service in 2021.

"We need to increase training places for paramedics and invest in the Ambulance Service to recruit and retain paramedics.

"Straight off, SF would fund an extra 50 paramedic training places next year.

"It’s vital we engage with the paramedics who have left the service and with the unions so maximum support can be given to those still working in it.

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"The people who run our ambulances are second to none, not only for their expertise but their kindness and reassurance to patients and families.

"They have special place in the hearts of anyone who has used the service."

"Our priority needs to be creating a sustainable domestic pipeline of trained paramedics to safely staff the ambulance service."

Ms Cronin concluded: "We all hope never to need the ambulance service, but we all need to be able to depend on it when we do."

This is not the first time that Réada Cronin has hit out at the government over healthcare issues: last November, she told Dáil Eireann that the North Kildare region is in a blue-light emergency, and cited the govt's 'neglect' as the cause behind it.

She also said at the time: "How this govt is treating our ambulance service and the citizens dependent on them in North Kildare is a disgrace."