Cash-strapped air ambulance cuts hours to 5 days a week
WHILE fears that the Rathcoole based Irish Community Raid Response (ICRR) charity air ambulance may be grounded have been allayed for now, its operators have warned that this may merely be a temporary reprieve.
Last week it emerged the service was facing the imminent and indefinite grounding of its aircraft unless it secured the vital funding needed to keep the life-saving service airborne.
While the €400,000 target set to keep the air ambulance going has not, by some considerable distance, been met it is set to remain in operation – albeit with reduced operating times.
Operations Manager Ruth Bruton said they had been left with no option but to reduce the service to a five-day operation “with immediate effect” to ensure it can remain airborne into March.
“It is absolutely not ideal to have reduced life-saving cover for the people of Ireland for two-days per week. However, it ensures that six more weeks of the service, which is six more weeks for the ICRR to gain committed support to keep the air ambulance flying,” said Ms Bruton.
It had been estimated that the air ambulance would fly up to 600 missions during the course of this year. However, ICRR now fear that this number could be substantially reduced, estimating that it will not be in a position to respond to in excess of 180 emergency calls due to the restriction on flying hours.
Ms Bruton said she was concerned that the forthcoming general election may serve to distract from the urgency of their fundraising appeal, which has, as of Wednesday afternoon managed raised less than €70,000 towards its stated target.
“The €400,000 needed to keep us flying has not been raised to date and with all the focus and attention on the looming general election, this service may yet be lost,” she said.
It was not all bad news for the service this week, after it received a large donation from the Irish Injured Jockeys Fund following a mission it undertook last October when it airlifted Grand National winning jockey David Mullins to hospital after a serious fall at Thurles Racecourse in which he broke his T12 vertebrae and clavicle.
“The ICRR Air Ambulance came to help me when I needed it the most, a serious fall like I had could have been life-changing,” said Mullins.
“This donation is an important contribution to their great work, many more people should support this service because you’ll never know if you’ll need it like I did. I didn’t think when I set out to ride that race, that I’d end up in hospital,” he added.