A West Clare health campaigner wants national policy to recognise “life beyond Ennis” amid fresh concerns about long ambulance waiting times in the area.
An emergency patient in the region is understood to have waited 75 minutes earlier this week for an ambulance after a serious medical incident.
HIQA recommends a turnaround time of 20 minutes for all callouts.
It’s understood one patient suffering from a cardiac incident in the West of the county earlier this week waited nearly 4 times that length for an ambulance to arrive to treat them.
It’s prompted alarm among West Clare healthcare campaigners once more.
Deirdre Culligan, who’s a former Kilrush Town Councillor and a member of the Reinstate Our Shannondoc Services group, says the issue is getting progressively worse.
A West Clare Councillor is calling for a third ambulance base to be located in the area in light of this latest incident.
There are currently two ambulance bases located in Kilrush and Ennistymon.
The National Ambulance Service is currently undertaking a Capacity Review Report for the region, which is due to completed before the end of March.
The matter was raised at this week’s meeting of the Regional Health Forum West.
Kilkee-based Fianna Fail Councillor and Forum member Cillian Murphy says while the ultimate aim would be a third base, shorter term solutions are needed.
