If the triage system operated properly when a 999 is called , timewasters would be weeded out. But because that system is not great everyone gets picked up regardless. There should be a stiff fine for calling an ambulance inappropriately.

I think it’s only fair to point out that in this situation it would appear that there was no inappropriate use of the ambulance service. (unless I’m missing something?)

Of course other calls which should not be placed will affect the availability it still highlights that there was not enough available service, under current practices.

I definitely think a fine system may be appropriate but then could lives be lost? I’d say most people have heard stories of people ignoring chest pain already – a fine might make people more reluctant to call for help.

I think the point was that other ambulances may have been on less important call thereby depriving the person whose situation was genuinely urgent

No doubt the paramedic did the right thing under less than optimal conditions, but had this child been critically ill, the difference of being transported in a car and not an ambulance could have had grave consequences. His ability to maintain her airway and perform effective CPR or deliver a shock in the event she arrested, or administer iv drugs would have been grossly impaired. And even if the situation was not quite as serious as that, his ability to assess, monitor and treat her in the confines of a car in the dark with minimum equipment is impaired to a point of drastically affecting the outcome. There is no situation under which this should be acceptable.

Yes advanced paramedics do work alone but when an advanced paramedic is call to an incident their is always an ambulance on the way. In this case an the advanced paramedic was working alone in a fully equipped and by driving the child I the family car he was leaving vital equipment in the ambulance and what If the girl took a turn for the worst and he was unable to treat her.

@sean…and what about families that have no cars, or parents who cannot drive…dial a cab?

I don’t think the article stats that he was an advance paramedic

Apart from the line that says “the advanced paramedic was sent to the scene” ya mean??

Sean I have to agree, my daughter was knocked off her bike outside my house when she was eight (now 23), and I saw it happen, never ever thought of calling an ambulance despite living in Dublin well served by ambulances at that time, instinct kicked in!

@Goldie locks. Yes!

@brian – it would have taken you less effort to hit CTRL & F and type “advanced” than it would to have made that comment.

Perhaps the paramedic knew that such equipment as found in an ambulance was not going to be necessary in this case or that the risk of waiting for the ambulance to arrive was greater than the risk of a five minute drive. These paramedics are highly trained and I would need to here his/her version of events.

Fine Gael should be saying that to the bondholders. This state would be €60 billion better off if it wasn’t for Kenny’s willingness to continue spending money on a bottomless pit. Ireland will get no break on her crippling €30 billion promissory note. This promissory note represents bonds worth less than 30% of their face value. The Fine Gael government continues to allow the ECB to “call the shots”.

The time has come for an early election – the time has come for Labor to withdraw from coalition with Fine Gael.

Ah but its there to pay off bondholders. Nero and the bond holders fiddling away (in more ways than one!) while we are all burned.

Rory, said like a true Fine Gaeler. This patient was lucky they lived 5 minutes from the hospital. Had she lived further and had a frantic parent driving to the hospital it could have resulted in a terrible accident. Fact is this government has to decide who comes first, their people or Bondholders.

We can’t comment on vital cutbacks to Health Care without addressing the fact that our government are prepared to see us suffer so they won’t lose face with their EU gods. Enda might have to give his European if the Year award back.

Please remember the sociopathic tendencies of this government next time you are in a Polling Station.

They have decided. You come bottom, bondholders top.

What a load of nonsense. This reminds me of the Council house where the father and two sons were plumbers and when a tap was leaking they called the Council. The ambulance was en route in this story and rather than wait the mother drove the child and paramedic the FIVE MINUTES DRIVE to the hospital.
Don’t we love to make a drama out of anything that might make Sinn Fein look respectable at the next election.
Let’s all grow up soon,

Just to put it into perspective; an AP is trained to within an inch of his life, he is comparable to an intern (junior doctor), in many cases in fact, they know more than the intern. If the hospital was 5 mins away this girl must have been in need of immediate attention as there are not many emergencies that require hospital attention within 5mins.
There are, as NP below says, two issues. Shift cover, and appropriate use of the service. In terms of shift cover, it is vital that staff are on standby, and can attend a scene if necessary. In terms of appropriate use of the service, don’t ring looking for a lift to A&E, when you get there the triage nurse will assess the urgency with which you need care, be warned if you inappropriately use the service you will be made three times as long as you might have been had you appeared in a taxi. I should know, I’ve triaged patients, and I’ve made them wait.
As an aside, the young girl has made a full recovery and is doing well (according to other reports).

Garry Fitzgerald, you are becoming a bit of a bore with your manic obsession with Sinn Fein, you’re morphing into Cruise O’Brien. You need to relax, stop hanging around your computer waiting for any mention of that party so you can leap into action. Go to the movies, take up cooking or play a round of golf.

@ James Connolly, I had an accident in work and got brought by Ambulance to the A&E because that is procedure. Are you trying to tell me that I waited 9hrs after Triage because it was to teach me a lesson for the use of an Ambulance in a non-life threatening situation? When I had no say in it

Aaron, I don’t know, the triage would’ve gotten a handover from paramedics, so would have known of your circumstances!
We got a handover a while ago for a woman who rang 999 for the ambulance to take her to her outpatient appointment because she didn’t want to get a taxi. She rang 999 saying she had some mysterious symptoms, paramedics turned up, she was standing at her gate, she informed the crew of her intentions, they had no choice but to bring her in. I got the handover, was told of this, the woman was about to abscond, I rang the outpatients and told them she wouldn’t be attending due to the fact that she was going to be under our care.
I don’t think the patient, or the OPD were impressed. But then neither was I, or the paramedic crew.

Rory the €18 billion that the current government paid over to bond holders this year would covered paramedic services for a good few years. That is why there is no money to provide this service and many other services and it is the only reason.

Garry, what in the name of god are you talking about. You’re metaphorical leaking tap cannot be compared to a distraught parent who’s child has collapsed and was obviously in absolute need of medical attention. Get a grip man, would you be so calm if your daughter lay dying in front of you. The distance to the hospital is irrelevant. She cold have lived 40 mins from the hospital,only one responder would still have turned up. Of course I expect your smart response which will leave me in no doubt as to your massive intellect and vast wisdom.

@James, I applaud your creative solution to that specific situation. Well done sir…

@ Stanley and the HSE with Reilly’s knowledge they are paying Private Ambulance companies just to keep Roscommon A+E closed and all because Reilly and the HSE will not admit their lies in closing Roscommon A+E

I’d say a helicopter might be a bit much for a 5 minute drive though. I’m from Letterkenny and the roads around it aren’t any worse than many other parts of the country. If you use that as justification for an air ambulance there’d be about 10 of them in the country.

When my niece first started to get ill my sister would often have put her daughter into car to meet the ambulance!! On one occasion she had her older brother had to carry his little sister (he is only 11) as the doctor couldn’t make a house call! She is extremely lucky baby she did tend to get sick in daytime hours where they generally was a GP to hand! I shudder to think what would have happened if it was late at night.

While visiting home one night I became ill! GP couldn’t come visit and with no ambulance in the area my sister had no car I was forced to wait for half an hour for my mother to collect me they managed to get me into the back into my own car while they preceded to drive me another 20 miles to seek medical attention. It was an extremely daunting for me not to mentioned the upset it caused my poor mammy & brother who drove me to get the medical attention I needed (I had never experienced such pain I do remember screaming!). By the time I made it to the GP I had to be treated in the back of the car and luckily for me there an ambulance had been made available!! though to be fair they did an excellent job of taking care of me thereafter but I still have memories that bloody car journey!

BOOOOOO!!!!!!

Eileen
I thought you were going to reduce your use of the Internet to save money but you seem to be on every single story like either a rash or Sinn Fein.

Garry, would you ever wake up? bs personal attack instead of making an effort to offer an alternative. Bondholder talk might be very tiresome but at least with this story it’s not misplaced like it is all too often on the journal.

Garry you’re some tool

The child did not receive the best care the advanced paramedic could only take so much equipment with him. And it is not the normal thing for an AP to have a mother drive him and her sick child to hospital. The AP should have never been on the ambulance by himself

Sorry annemarie but I think your wrong… Advanced paramedic or not, no one should have to transport a patient in a car with a family member driving. At the end of the day the Hse is running the ambulance service on a shoe string. Frontline shifts aren’t being covered because of budget cuts…

Hi Gerard, I absolutely agree with you! No argument!
:)

Sometimes a call has to be made in these situations. And sometimes the safest place for a patient , even an unstable one , is an A and E. transfer to A and E so promptly probably saved this child’s life. Waiting for a fully equipped ambulance may have been a delay too long. The paramedic was the senior clinician at the scene. It is his call what to do. He had to decide to stay or go. Respect to him for making it.

Celtic Lady he arrived in a fully equipped ambulance the problem was there was no one with him to drive the bloody thing while he worked on the child. I doubt anyone disagrees with his or hers decision to transport the child in the mothers car given those circumstances. The issue is why was he on his own, or what if the mother could not drive or had no car? What would have happened then…

The bottom line is that best practice is to turn up, assess, react using the resources available.

A second paramedic should have been one of those resources.

Because there was no second paramedic, a choice had to be made. It appears the right choice was made. The fact that we’re not talking about someone dying now does not mean that the choice was the best of a bad pair of choices.

Well done to the AP.

Sometimes panic sets in. My son broke his arm falling off a merry go round,and as I had no transport, I had to call an ambulance. The paramedic said I did the right thing because if I tried gettin a lift or a cab his bone would have come through his arm. They have the proper equipment to deal with every situation that I don’t have at home or in my neighbours car!