IRELAND’S FIRST dedicated rapid-response air ambulance will be ready to launch on February 1st if Minister for Health Dr James Reilly gives the green light.
Air Ambulance Ireland (AAI), formerly All Ireland Air Ambulance (AIAA), has been trying to get off the ground for more than three years but says it is now ready to provide Ireland’s first community-funded helicopter emergency medical service.
The Health Service Executive has already held detailed discussions with a number of potential service providers and a final decision is expected this month. The Government could opt to deploy the Air Corps or Irish Coast Guard in such a role however.
Representatives of AAI met the Minister last summer and in December submitted a formal proposal for a service which the organisation says will cost up to €120,000 a month to run. It has confirmed that the helicopter will be based where it will best integrate with the existing health service’s National Ambulance Service network.
AAI general manager Ellen Miller said, however, that the operation needs community support and funding. “To keep helicopters in the air, the charity is totally reliant on community funding. I would appeal to people throughout the country to volunteer and raise funds for this much-needed service,” Ms Miller said.
The ambulance service, which was rebranded early last year, had originally hoped to be operational by the summer of 2008.
In February 2009, the former air ambulance service took a helicopter to locations around the State so that the public and local authorities could see what the service would involve.
During a visit to Ennis, Co Clare, members of the local fire brigade presented the group with a cheque for €5,000. Efforts to launch the service in the summer of 2009 and again in March 2010 also failed due to a lack of funding.
Ireland is the only country in the European Union without a dedicated air ambulance service.
AAI believes air ambulances have a vital role to play in the provision of medical services in Ireland given the reconfiguration of the health service around major centres of excellence and changes to the road ambulance service in rural Ireland.