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Long distance travel most common reason for delays to local ambulance response times

Dec 10, 2021 13:11 By Shannonside News
Long distance travel most common reason for delays to local ambulance response times
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Bad weather and issues with vehicles are also among some reasons for delays.

There were 23 cases of ambulances taking over an hour to reach life-threatening emergencies in this region in the first 6 months of 2021.

The figures are part of a national total of 300 emergency calls that took 60 minutes or more for services to arrive on the scene.

Long distance travel was the reason given for the delays facing the majority of the national and local call-outs.

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Cavan faced the highest levels of delay in the region with ambulances arriving at 12 life-threatening incidents over an hour after they were called.

In one case, an ambulance attended the scene almost two hours after the call, due to the original service being re-routed to a more serious emergency.

In Longford, one call was delayed for over an hour as the ambulance crew waited for Garda support to attend a potentially violent scene, with two other calls resulting from long distance travel.

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Three incidents in Monaghan saw a waiting time of over an hour for emergency services to arrive, with long distances and higher priority calls responsible.

There were two examples in both Leitrim and Roscommon with long travel time blamed for the wait.

According to Freedom of Information figures from RighttoKnow.ie, other reasons given for lengthy delays in reaching patients included bad weather conditions, decontaminating an ambulance, and problems with accurate directions.

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