Air ambulance service set to get off ground in July
A COMMUNITY air ambulance will be available for medical emergencies in County Wexford from this summer, according to the charity Irish Community Rapid Response which is in the process of recruiting a fundraiser in the south-east.
Co-founder and CEO John Kearney who visited Wexford 18 months ago to announce plans for the service, said a contract for the lease of a helicopter has been signed with Sloane Helicopters in the UK and after a period of training, it will be ready to go live in July. Mr. Kearney said talks have also taken place with the Department of Health which has agreed to staff, equip and dispatch the ambulance which will serve as a mobile intensive care unit for Munster and South Leinster.
The ambulance will be staffed by qualified trauma doctors who will administer life-saving treatment to injured people at serious accident sites and it will be dispatched through the National Ambulance, according to the CEO. He said negotiations with the Department of Health were ‘slow and painful’ but resulted in a positive outcome with a commitment to the service for five years.
Irish Community Rapid Response already has a team of 250 volunteer doctors, including a number in Wexford who travel to medical emergencies around the country in 12 rapid response cars. There are plans to provide a rapid response vehicle in County Wexford.
The charity will have to meet the €2 million a year cost of leasing, operating and maintaining the helicopter and running the base in Cork while the Department of Health will provide the medical governance, staff and equipment.
Mr. Kearney said it is an undisputed fact that in the aftermath of a major accident or incident, timing is crucial and outcomes are the greatest when treatment can begin within the first hour, the ‘golden hour’.
‘In terms of a response time for Wexford, it took us 29 minutes to get there from Cork when we travelled by helicopter last year to announce plans for the service’, he said.
While the Helicopter Emergency Medical Service (HEMS) will operate primarily in the Munster and Leinster regions, it will be a national asset, he said.
Irish Community Raopid Response has managed to raise enough money from fundraising and donations to secure the helicopter.
‘We have enough to get the helicopter here. The next challenge is to keep it here. We need everyone in the community to take responsibility for it. It belongs to all of us and will be there for the benefit of everyone’, said Mr. Kearney, adding that the charity will soon be recruiting a person to oversee fundraising in the south-east.
For more information contact john@icrr.ie.