Long ambulance response times resulting in loss of lives locally. Long ambulance response times has resulted in the loss of at least one life in Cavan and Monaghan.
That's according to a member of the public who contacted Northern Sound using the name "concerned paramedic". This person provided great detail about how roster and overtime changes; within the National Ambulance Service, is affecting services in Monaghan and Cavan. They also said a cardiac arrest patient in Co. Monaghan died while waiting 45 minutes for an ambulance.
Another whistle-blower told this station that on one date in February there were "zero ambulances" in the Monaghan station on a Friday night into Saturday morning. When Northern Sound contacted the HSE with the whistle-blower's claims, the HSE responded by saying that despite efforts to recruit new paramedics "staffing shortages persist in certain stations, including those in Monaghan and Cavan".
Sinn Féin Cavan County Councillor Damien Brady works as a firefighter in the county. He has seen first-hand the harm ambulance response times are having every day here:
