question re ringing emergency services

magicbastarder

i rang emergency services yesterday after arriving on the scene of an accident; and since then, about five people i've related the story to have told me that i could well be billed for the cost of the callout.
it seems to be a very widely held belief, so i was curious as to how true it is? i'd assumed you could be charged for malicious or timewasting callouts, but i would assume that a genuine caller should not be charged?

Paulzx

You were not the end user of the emergency services. You won't be billed.

What county were you in?

magicbastarder

offaly.
seems to be a quite widespread misconception about the billing; maybe that's why the second person on scene (we were third) headed off without ringing it in.

it's a scary thought that people don't ring emergency services out of a mistaken belief that they will be billed.

civdef

As above, you won't be charged (if by some mistake you get billed - you won't have to pay once you explain).

The risk that people won't call the emergency services for fear of a bill is the main reason I don't think emergency services should be charging for most calls.

I think charges have a place sometimes, though, like for chimney fires (totally avoidable) and recurrent false alarm activations (same).

Zambia

I heard a story a long time ago 94-95

A bloke had a heart attack on a golf course in Fingal, Dublin, ambulance called.

Took man away.

A few months later the course got a bill of about IP300 for the call out.

Does this happen still?

johnnyrotten

Zambia232 wrote: »

I heard a story a long time ago 94-95

A bloke had a heart attack on a golf course in Fingal, Dublin, ambulance called.

Took man away.

A few months later the course got a bill of about IP300 for the call out.

Does this happen still?

URBAN MYTH
There is or never has been a charge for ambulances.
In the case for Dublin there is still no charge for domestic fire calls or fire calls for special services ( including ambulance assists, Accidents etc)

Actual Paramedic

Only time a charge for an ambulance is passed on is when a legal case is taken and the person suing puts in for costs for the ambulance. Otherwise it is free when the statutory services respond

angelfire9

Actual Paramedic wrote: »

Only time a charge for an ambulance is passed on is when a legal case is taken and the person suing puts in for costs for the ambulance. Otherwise it is free when the statutory services respond

To clarify, the ambulanve and Gardai are free the fire service is not always free it depends on where you live! :mad:

Actual Paramedic

The fire service can charge at times depending on the county council involved. They can charge for chimney fires, RTA's, anything where insurance claims are made.

Private ambulances charge and its manily done through Health insurance schemes like VHI, Quinn etc

angelfire9

Actual Paramedic wrote: »

The fire service can charge at times depending on the county council involved. They can charge for chimney fires, RTA's, anything where insurance claims are made.

Private ambulances charge and its manily done through Health insurance schemes like VHI, Quinn etc

In referring to ambulances I meant the public HSE ones
I actually didn't realise that Ireland had "private" ambulances per se with the exception of the likes of the Order of Malta who do not generally do emergency call outs?
I would have thought that only the state HSE ambulances did emergency calls??

AFAIK the fire brigade in Dublin is the only one who does not charge for domestic fires and/or RTA's
The certainly know how to charge for their services in Clare I can tell ya!:(

Actual Paramedic

Dublin Fire Brigade provide an ambulance service for the 999 system in Dublin, so its the HSE and DFB. At times the HSE has contracted in private service providers to fill in. Some of the voluntaries provide a first responder type scheme with their ambulance when contacted via ambulance control.

But 90% of the 999 system is HSE nationally.

coolmoose

Private ambulance services generally provide transport, patient repatriation and transfer services intra- and inter-facility (i.e. referrals, clinic appointments in other hospitals, scans/angios etc.), transport of medical teams, organ transportation etc.

There are a number of these providers in the country, I won't name any but in general they have different colour schemes on their vehicles to HSE & DFB vehicles, yet they may still be marked as emergency ambulances (they would generally be equipped and staffed to the same level as the statutory services)