A report labelling Mulranny an “ambulance blackspot” has been described by a county councillor Lisa Chambers as “fairly damning”.
The report, published this week by health watchdog HIQA, on the country’s ambulance service, highlighted Mulranny as one of three “ambulance blackspots” in the country due to a lack of dedicated ambulance crews.
“The report is fairly damning to say the least,” said Fianna Fail’s Councillor Lisa Chambers yesterday (Thursday ).
“It is clear from reading the report that the west of Ireland and Mayo, Galway, and Roscommon in particular, are the worst off.”
Some of the issues highlighted in the HIQA report included staffing levels and the ageing ambulance fleet.
“It was only a few months ago that we had a report of an ambulance breaking down in Castlebar,” pointed out Cllr Chambers. “Luckily it wasn’t on the way to a call but it could very well have been.
“Another area touched upon that needs improving is more tactical deployment of resources,” she continued. “This is something we know needs addressing in Mayo, where we have had Castlebar based crews attending to calls in Galway, and Roscommon crews attending to calls in Mayo.
“This just makes no sense and it is clearly not an efficient and tactical use of resources.”
HIQA has now made 12 recommendations on how to improve the national ambulance service.
“Given that HIQA is an independent body, one hopes that Minister Varadkar will pay close attention to what they are saying and finally do something about our ambulance service,” said Cllr Chambers.
“I for one won't be happy until I see a fully manned base in Mulranny and additional supports given to our other bases in Ballina, Castlebar, and Belmullet.”
