Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Last week, Deputy Cullinane and I met with representatives of the National Ambulance Service to discuss the crisis at University Hospital Kerry. While we were there, problems with the ambulance service came up time and again because they are intrinsically linked. Nearly every day, my office is contacted by people who cannot get healthcare due to the ongoing crisis. Worryingly, a common concern is the inability to get an ambulance service. People are referred to the emergency department by their GPs or they have an emergency but must wait hours for an ambulance. It is commonplace to hear of ambulances being sent from Limerick and Cork to take Kerry people to University Hospital Kerry, and vice versa.

Before coming to the Chamber, I spoke to Ms Rita Sheehy, who worked in medical practice for almost 20 years. She said that things went from bad to worse six years ago when the call centres were centralised. She told me one ambulance from her area went to Rosscarbery last weekend while another went to Union Hall. The Kenmare ambulance ended up in Waterford. I am not sure, given the crisis in healthcare in Kerry, that there is an understanding we have three peninsulas in our spread-out county, with the resources for only 150,000 people. We do not even have that. We have a population during the summer months of close to 500,000 people and the services are clearly not there.

Young children and elderly people end up being driven to hospital by family members, which creates risk and places parents and family members in a bind. Should they wait for paramedics to come or risk driving their loved one to hospital before it is too late? People must face these choices due to the lack of ambulances in Kerry. I previously asked the Minister to base ambulances in Killorglin and Abbeyfeale. Both areas are adjacent to communities grossly underserved in normal times and feel completely abandoned during this crisis. I again invite the Minister to come to Kerry, go to the hospital, meet people and meet with the ambulance service.

I am hearing more stories of ambulances waiting for hours to transfer patients into hospital. It is common to hear of five-hour waits and sometimes eight-hour waits. Staff shortages and a lack of beds mean highly vulnerable patients and paramedics are waiting too long to be seen. It is not good enough. The Minister needs to take action. I urge him to do something before it is too late and someone loses his or her life.

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