MLA concerned over local ambulance cover

MLA concerned over local ambulance cover

4 May 2016

CONCERN about the “complete absence” of ambulance cover in the Down area has been raised with Stormont Health Minister Simon Hamilton. South Down MLA Chris Hazzard has described concerns that locally based paramedics are being moved to provide cover in the Belfast area as “serious” and claimed that last month the Down area was left with no emergency cover on several occasions. Describing this as “wholly unacceptable,” Mr Hazzard confirmed he has asked Mr Hamilton to urgently assess the situation and bring clarity to what he described as a “life or death issue.” The MLA said almost £2m was made available recently to improve ambulance response times in a number of areas across the Province, including South Down. At the time, the Health Minister confirmed the cash injection would enable an extra 15,000 emergency response hours for the northern, south eastern and southern local commissioning group areas. Mr Hazzard continued: “Bearing in mind the Health Minister recently accepted our argument that additional resources had to be invested into improving ambulance response times in rural areas such as South Down, it would be farcical if only a number of months later we were faced with no cover at all due to a logjam in Belfast. “South Down is a large rural area with very specific health challenges. We absolutely must have appropriate ambulance cover that can meet these needs in a speedy manner.” Local health campaigners have previously voiced concern about the lack of ambulance cover in the Down area and last year met with senior Ambulance Service officials to discuss their concerns on the issue. Hospital campaigners have argued ambulance provision is under resourced given the number of cases in the Down area where people have had to wait too long for paramedics to arrive.