A Clare healthcare campaigner claims giving more ambulances to this county will only lead to more congestion and overcrowding at University Hospital Limerick. The National Ambulance Service has confirmed the addition of five extra ambulances and 27 staff to its services here. Data from the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation meanwhile shows 121 admitted patients were waiting for beds at the Dooradoyle facility this morning which was more than double the next busiest facility; St Vincent's Hospital in Dublin. Kilrush-based Friends of Ennis Hospital PRO Deirdre Culligan says the newly-allocated resources are welcome but don't get to the heart of the issue.
Well, I welcome any events that they do to benefit the county and benefit the ambulance service themselves.
Is it going to make any difference?
To us in West Claire, we still have an hour to travel and and close on to you, HL.
My concern would be, um, is are the extra ambulances going to add to the bottleneck that's already below in your HL?
And we've seen their own where you have ambulances backed up.
So now you're putting your adding more ambulances to the fleet.
Is that not adding to the problem? That would be my perspective of Arbus.
They would argue then that having more ambulances would enable more people to get the care that they need and would allow them to actually get to the facility.
Obviously, you're saying that it could cause problems once they get there.
But is it progress that there are more services running at least?
Oh, it's fantastic that there's more services running. But as I said, once you get to you HL, that does not alleviate the problem that is already there.
Um, and I think it just can't concretes the fact that Claire needs its own hospital.
Right.
It's important that you can hammer home no measure.
And throwing us to me what they don't is throw drones scraps or clothes until it's a cake.
So these you remain in your view.
I think what will happen is you're going to add to the bottleneck.
They haven't the capacity or the capability of offloading all extra patients down there.
We know that.
When you hear about the additional staffing, Deirdre, they're a new post being created at Kilroch and in his time.
And does it seem that there is maybe more of a focus, but still perhaps not enough, but more of a focus on the west and north of the county.
No, I think myself, as I said, it's throwing us scraps and hoping that we just go away and be quiet for a while.
I honestly believe that I think this is their game plan.
Just give them something that will satisfy them or will seem to satisfy them, but we're not given them the full cake.
We give them the crumbs.
And I'm not I'm not downgrading the ambulance service by any means what they do is on their work is unbelievable and they're under severe pressure.
But what I am saying is it does not alleviate the problem that we do not have a model three or model four hospital in Claire for the people of Claire for the people of west care and north care, the whole of Claire.
And you're still going to the room.
If you give an ambulance to every person in west Claire, as there's your own personal ambulance, it's still not going to alleviate the bottleneck that is that we know is you HL.
And if you have six extra ambulances below in Kyrush and another six or seven above an end of time.
That's 13 ambulances arriving down with 13 extra patients into what we already know is a war zone.
How many more trawlies is that 13 extra trawlies 13 extra people on trawlies.
It's it's not getting to the rules of the problem.
We should for ambulances. I waited myself for with my mother for two hours.
And she was a straw victim, but it still is not helping the issue that is at hand.
All it's doing is camouflaged.
Okay, this news was, of course, given by the national ambulance service as a meeting of the Midwest TDs and senators organized by deputy Joe Cuny of finigale and speaking on this announcement when asked about the upcoming visit of the health minister, who, as you know, has accepted an invitation and is coming to this county in the near future.
Joe Cuny was asked by Claire Femme if he will be during that visit, pushing for a new A&D and a new emergency department in county Claire.
And his response was that he will be pushing for better health services for the people of county Claire, whether those services be in Claire or in limbic.
Does that response concern you in any way?
Yes, it does because Joe Cuny is now showing finigale's priority line.
He's doing what he's told. He's not doing what he was elected for.
Of course, deputy Cuny would say that he is pushing for better health services for the people of county Claire.
And even when you consider that this announcement from the national ambulance service came out of a meeting organized by deputy Cuny, he would, of course, make the argument that he is fighting for better health care in the Midwest.
I don't think so. This is something the ambulance service has been fighting for for a long time.
Every before Joe Cuny was elected.
So I wouldn't put this and give him the praise for something that the ambulance service themselves have been fighting for.
I really wouldn't.
The workers there have been, you know, under severe amount of pressure.
For years, it's not this, this isn't just happened yesterday or the day before since Joe Cuny was elected.
This has been going on for a long, long time.
OK, OK.
And I think myself, they've just seen an opportunity to give them.
They also have to know that the pressure is real.
It's not something that these drivers are staff of the ambulance service makeup.
They're on the road every day, every hour of every day.
They know what they're facing.
They know exactly the conditions they're facing as well.
But they have everything they have been saying for the last number of years has been falling on deaf ears.
