Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I wish to raise the ongoing crisis in the accident and emergency departments. I received information by way of parliamentary question on health and safety, the health information Bill, and patient safety. There is only one ambulance covering major towns in Tipperary each night. Some towns have no ambulance at all. Towns such as Clonmel, Cashel, Roscrea, Nenagh and Tipperary town have only one ambulance. With the problems in the accident and emergency departments in both Limerick and south Tipperary hospitals, it is often not possible to admit patients. There is chaos. This is surely unacceptable.

The National Ambulance Service has recommended that more staff be acquired for it. We are told we will have to wait for four years. When Nenagh's accident and emergency unit closed, we were promised extra rapid-response vehicles. What is happening is very alarming. Carrick-on-Suir, a town in the very south east of our constituency, has no ambulance at all. Having one ambulance per night is not acceptable because anything can happen. Ambulances can be delayed. It is not good enough for the patients in south Tipperary to have to wait and to have to call a 999 centre in Dublin that does not know the locations of the patients, not to mention all the rural and outlying areas. This is totally unacceptable and deplorable.

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