Severe staffing shortages in the Health Service Executive's ambulance service have resulted in a number of areas being left without their usual level of ambulance cover in recent months, it has been claimed.
Pat Hanafin, chairman of the Ambulance Association of Ireland, said the shortages had also resulted in some staff having to work dangerously long hours, putting themselves and the public at risk. "The whole system is going to fall apart unless something is done . . . at this stage it's a crisis situation," he said.
Some 380 extra staff were required and this had been outlined in letters to the HSE and Minister for Health Mary Harney, he added.
In a letter to Ms Harney last week, he wrote: "I urgently require a meeting with you and your executives to discuss the crisis situation that we now have in the ambulance service as a result of the embargo on new staff being recruited".
The letter continued: "At the present time, due to the shortage of staff and overtime being stretched dangerously to the limit, with crews exhausted after completing maybe 80-100 hours working in emergency ambulances, stations have been forced to close down resulting in no ambulance cover in those areas. These are not isolated incidents, it seems now to be happening on a weekly basis in certain parts of the country."
A spokesman for the HSE said yesterday that the ambulance service had historically relied on a lot of overtime by staff but it now wanted to move away from reliance on overtime as part of its health service reform agenda.
"We are in discussions with Siptu as to how we can implement that," he said.
He also claimed no ambulance stations had been closed. "There is no question of ambulance stations being closed. In fact our service plan for this year allows for additional ambulance bases to be opened," he added.