Does anyone else feel the emergency services in this country are way too unreliable?

BetterThanThou

I have personally never called the fire department, so I cannot speak for them, though I have heard stories of them not even bothering to respond to burning cars in my area because it's so common.
I have called the police on a few occasions, including one where I expressed that some peoples lives were possibly in immediate danger and they took 2 hours to respond, the police station is 5-10 minutes down the road, tops.
I have called an ambulance on one occasion when someone was in critical condition and ended up in intensive care and came very close to death, it took over an hour for the ambulance to arrive. Again, the hospital is only 5-10 minutes down the road.
Does anyone think more money needs to be put into the emergency services in order to fix these problems? I understand the country is in a recession and cuts must be made, but the unreliability of the emergency services is dangerous, and I'm in a well equipped area, I can hardly imagine how bad the emergency services might be in other areas.

Mickey H

Never used them so can't really comment. Every case is different though.

Standard Toaster

You might have better luck ringing the Fire Brigade or the Garda instead in future.

Einstein

two very different questions you're asking there,
1) Are the Emergency Services unreliable?
Yes due to the lack of investment that's allocated. The Northern Irish Ambulance Service have more resources for 6 counties than we have in the whole republic.
You say peoples lives were in danger, are you medically trained? How do you know? (i'm not saying you were wrong btw). All calls are prioritised, so guess what, even though you rang for an ambulance, Fire Brigade or Gardaí, so did hundreds of other people about ten mins before you. People seem to forget that in times of panic, they aren't the only people that need assistance.

2) Should more money be allocated to the Emergency Services?
Yes.

cuana

Well I know in my local area yes at times yes recently we had to move my father who was having a heart attack and drive in order to meet the ambulance it was a risk we had to take desperate we thought if only we could get him closer to a defibrillator. Luckily he made it through.

I'm sure there are limited services at times due to a number of factors if you've ever watched shows with emergency services and a huge amount of time spent dealing with time wasters.

Sauve

You always hear the stories about the Emergency Services when they're overstretched/late/fcuk up/take too long to get somewhere.

Nobody ever shouts about the countless lives they save every day, the hours over and above that they regularly put in, the men and women that deal with horrific situations on a daily basis, and still show up to work smiling the next day.
It's heroic tbh, not unreliable.

hfallada

A majority of emergency services delays would be resolved with a national post code system. If you phone the fire brigade there would be several streets with the same name in your county. Without a post code its quite difficult for someone not from the area to get the address right.

I worked in company that investigated insurance claims and one of the lads in the office said one strange case he had was a kitchen caught fire in a mansion ( the guy is extremely wealthily) and he phoned for the fire brigade. His house name was very similar to one of the state owned homes in the same county. After 30 mins and no fire brigade he called again to am what was happening. They sent the fire brigade to the stately home as they couldnt the differences between the two address on their system

kerry4sam

BetterThanThou wrote: »

I have personally never called the fire department, so I cannot speak for them, though I have heard stories of them not even bothering to respond to burning cars in my area because it's so common.
I have called the police on a few occasions, including one where I expressed that some peoples lives were possibly in immediate danger and they took 2 hours to respond, the police station is 5-10 minutes down the road, tops.
I have called an ambulance on one occasion when someone was in critical condition and ended up in intensive care and came very close to death, it took over an hour for the ambulance to arrive. Again, the hospital is only 5-10 minutes down the road.
Does anyone think more money needs to be put into the emergency services in order to fix these problems? I understand the country is in a recession and cuts must be made, but the unreliability of the emergency services is dangerous, and I'm in a well equipped area, I can hardly imagine how bad the emergency services might be in other areas.

Are the Emergency Services reliable?
~ An Garda Síochána: I have nothing positive at present to say about this organisation so won't comment
~ Fire Dept: No complaints. Have had a few encounters through work and other-wise; always professional, timely and a God-Send!
~ Ambulance: No complaint. See here for my most recent situation involving ambulance personnel.

Does anyone think more money needs to be put into the emergency services?
~ Absolutely imo, however
22 extra ambulance personnel in Kerry due to reorganisation ( see here )
&
HSE says changes to ambulance service has improved service in South Kerry ( see here )

so I doubt any more extra monies will be injected there.

Thanks,
kerry4sam

Aestivalis

There isnt enough money allocated to them, and there isnt enough resources available for them to be able to respond efficiently to the demand placed on them.

However, its not the gardai, fire personell, or ambulance crews fault. So dont take it out them that they cant respond to your emergency quick enough.
This is something commonly done by people with grievances.

The training they receive is excellent. It all just comes down to lack of funding and ****ty management. Surprise surprise.

Also a lot of misconceptions make people criticise their job, when they havent a clue what they're talking about.

If your relative has been in cardiac arrest for 30 minutes....he's probably not coming back no matter how fast the ambulance arrives, be it doctors, paramedics, surgeons etc. Its just facts of life.

If your car engine goes on fire...its probably gonna be written off within a few mins of fire damage.

Most counties have 1 or 2 ambulance stations, and a few fire stations. Having available resources within 10 minutes of every person in the country, is just not viable.

It would be nice if we could have the same resources as America.

BetterThanThou

Sauve wrote: »

You always hear the stories about the Emergency Services when they're overstretched/late/fcuk up/take too long to get somewhere.

Nobody ever shouts about the countless lives they save every day, the hours over and above that they regularly put in, the men and women that deal with horrific situations on a daily basis, and still show up to work smiling the next day.
It's heroic tbh, not unreliable.

In no way am I saying the people who are employed by the emergency services are unreliable at all, I feel it's the government's fault that they're so unreliable, as more money needs to be put into the emergency services. I understand that there can be many calls made to the emergency services at once and they must answer all of them, but due to the lack of funding, they don't have the facilities to do so, and that's what makes them unreliable. Judging from my experience with the police in my area, if my home was getting broken into, I highly doubt the police would get there in time to help. I've been told in my area of 70,000+ people, there's only two cars at any one time ready to take a call. This it critically underfunded if you ask me.

Arthur Beesley

BetterThanThou wrote: »

I have personally never called the fire department, so I cannot speak for them, though I have heard stories of them not even bothering to respond to burning cars in my area because it's so common.
I have called the police on a few occasions, including one where I expressed that some peoples lives were possibly in immediate danger and they took 2 hours to respond, the police station is 5-10 minutes down the road, tops.
I have called an ambulance on one occasion when someone was in critical condition and ended up in intensive care and came very close to death, it took over an hour for the ambulance to arrive. Again, the hospital is only 5-10 minutes down the road.
Does anyone think more money needs to be put into the emergency services in order to fix these problems? I understand the country is in a recession and cuts must be made, but the unreliability of the emergency services is dangerous, and I'm in a well equipped area, I can hardly imagine how bad the emergency services might be in other areas.

More money? When has that ever solved issues with public services?

Duck's hoop

BetterThanThou wrote: »

it took over an hour for the ambulance to arrive. Again, the hospital is only 5-10 minutes down the road.

Not always practical, but if the hospital is that close the first thing I'd think of would be getting the person there in a car.

It's going to be twice as fast as waiting on an ambulance at an absolute minimum.

Shakti

Unreliable I wouldn't call them that,
There just isn't enough of them, we need more air ambulances!
The rub is when they do get you to A&E you spend hours/days on a trolley,

cuana

Sauve wrote: »

You always hear the stories about the Emergency Services when they're overstretched/late/fcuk up/take too long to get somewhere.

Nobody ever shouts about the countless lives they save every day, the hours over and above that they regularly put in, the men and women that deal with horrific situations on a daily basis, and still show up to work smiling the next day.
It's heroic tbh, not unreliable.

It is there choice an admirable one for sure and they much good which is fantastic most of us are very grateful including myself but its hard not see the negative they are overstretched and late which does impact on people.

I don't think anyone is actually criticizing the individuals that work in providing much needed care but more of the lack of lets man power, equipment, vehicles etc.

donvito99

They are criminally under-resourced and pathetically managed, relative to the setup in the UK and especially the North.

On some days, a majority of the ambulances for Dublin City are siting idle at the Mater. What patrol cars Guards do have now are on their last legs. DFB are having issues with items of equipment as fundamental as breathing apparatus.

All it will take is a major incident at say, the airport, to expose the system for what it really is, on the brink.

FanadMan

Have only had to call the emergency services twice and both times for an ambulance. First time was in Letterkenny and it arrived within 15 minutes, despite the hospital only 5 minutes drive away. Second time was at home for my father. Normally during the day that drive takes about 45 minutes and the ambulance arrived about 35 minutes later (was the middle of the night so very little traffic on the road).

And yes, more money should be given to all the services. They are overworked.....especially in rural areas like here. The ambulances have a massive area to cover with not enough staff.

Einstein

donvito99 wrote: »

On some days, a majority of the ambulances for Dublin City are siting idle at the Mater...

Please do elaborate...?

windy shepard henderson

Arthur Beesley wrote: »

More money? When has that ever solved issues with public services?

for a start it employs more workers so that staff dont have to work 36 to 48 hour straight shifts most people work that in a week!! it opens all those closed wards and hospitals that have been closed over the past 10 years, it alows more ambulances on the road,

just because you ring for an ambulance 10 mins away from a hospital dos'nt mean that its parked up the road doing nothing......the likelihood is that it is probably 30 miles away dealing with someone else

most fire departments are part time so they have to leave work to deal with any complaints the full time ones are under staffed and as above could be miles away when you call for them more money provides more staff

surely all this is common knowledge its hardly down to the fact that they like taking the piss out of people

mikemac1

Our estate is surrounded by waste ground and became a favoured spot for joyriders to burn out cars. Or a more serious issue where someone got shot and the jeep was burned out. Fire Brigade was there inside 15 minutes, can't ask for more then that.

Kicked a junkie thief out of the flat and the squad car was here inside 5 minutes, superb. I rang the station though, didn't call 999 as by then he was gone and it's not an emergency

Thumbs up from me

I have read on boards that people call ambulances for all situations as they reckon they will skip the queue in A&E. I don't know if that's true

cuckoo

mikemac1 wrote: »

I have read on boards that people call ambulances for all situations as they reckon they will skip the queue in A&E. I don't know if that's true

Won't skip any queue by calling an ambulance - person will be assessed and then sent out to the waiting room if not urgent.

People calling the Big Free Yellow Taxi for a lift to the hospital to have their sore finger looked at is one of the reasons that the response time to emergencies can be longer than it should be.

Menas

Sauve wrote: »

You always hear the stories about the Emergency Services when they're overstretched/late/fcuk up/take too long to get somewhere.

Nobody ever shouts about the countless lives they save every day, the hours over and above that they regularly put in, the men and women that deal with horrific situations on a daily basis, and still show up to work smiling the next day.
It's heroic tbh, not unreliable.

And they do this while putting their own safety at risk from stone throwing scumbags in some areas.

The only two instances where I have had to use the emergency services in this country have been responded to within minutes. But not good to generalise on a whole service based on two experiences.

ComeraghBlue

Called the guards on the neighbour a few weeks ago as he was kicking the ****e out of his Gf. the station is 5 mins away. the Garda turned up 40 mins later

Kablamo!

I can only talk for myself but the only time I've rang an ambulance directly (father not breathing) there was a fire brigade here in five minutes and an ambulance in less than ten. I really cannot fault the services we received.

dinnyirwin

I broke my leg a few days ago (part of the reason Im signing up to a few message boards. Being laid up is a bitch) and I have to say that I was very impressed by the speed at which the ambulance arrived. And the drew were great.

But I have had experience of calling the police and them never arriving at all.

donspeekinglesh

Einstein wrote: »

Please do elaborate...?

Waiting for their stretchers to be returned to them I imagine.

EuropeanSon

Sauve wrote: »

You always hear the stories about the Emergency Services when they're overstretched/late/fcuk up/take too long to get somewhere.

Nobody ever shouts about the countless lives they save every day, the hours over and above that they regularly put in, the men and women that deal with horrific situations on a daily basis, and still show up to work smiling the next day.
It's heroic tbh, not unreliable.

They can easily be both heroic and unreliable, there's no contradiction.

And just because they are unreliable, it doesn't mean it's their fault.

Some people get offended and defensive over the slightest things.

Santa Cruz

ComeraghBlue wrote: »

Called the guards on the neighbour a few weeks ago as he was kicking the ****e out of his Gf. the station is 5 mins away. the Garda turned up 40 mins later

And? The only issue is why there was a delay. If the Gardaí were at another call of equal or more seriousness then it is down to resources and allocation of manpower. Are you prepared to pay more tax to cover this?
If the Gardaí and ambulance hadn't to spend so much time dealing with spunkers and time wasters they would have a far better service

angelfire9

Are they unreliable I would say no
Are they over stretched I would say yes absolutely

If I was lucky enough to live 5 mins from an open hospital I'd be driving there rather than waiting on an ambulance to be honest, leaving an ambulance free for calls that actually require them, like RTA's where a civilian might actually endanger lives by trying to assist

Of course where I live the A&E (which I might add only officially operates 8-8) is actually closed at the moment because there isn't suffficent staff to run it

In Clare the ambulance service has to cover a massive geographical area and transport patients to limerick so even a call out from Ennis ties up an ambulance 45 mins minimum
A call out from Loop head or Lahinch and that ambulance is gone 2+ hours meaning someone else is left waiting

Garda stations around here have been closed and districts amalgamated so again massive wait times for calls outside Ennis/Kilrush/Killaloe (district headquarters)

Bar the airport all fire fighters in Clare are retained so again delays delays delays

Is this the fault of staff?
No
It's the lack of resources
Lack of manpower
Lack of equipment

Lollipops23

Called a fire brigade and police a few years ago when someone intentionally set fire to the front garden.

Fire brigade were with us in less than 5mins. Still waiting on the police.

On the other hand, my ex's mother had a stroke at home in rural Mayo the other week. Ambulance was with her extremely quickly,which is pretty impressive.

seamus

ComeraghBlue wrote: »

Called the guards on the neighbour a few weeks ago as he was kicking the ****e out of his Gf. the station is 5 mins away. the Garda turned up 40 mins later

I know this is hard for some people to understand, but the Gardai aren't your personal security service. They're not sitting in the station five minutes down the road, just waiting for your personal call.

If everyone else is occupied doing something else, then they're not going to get to you in five minutes.

The urgency and the severity of the call will be determined by someone else before it's relayed to the Gardai on duty. It's your responsibility to ensure that you get this across to them.

Also, if it is that important, ring 999 instead of the station directly.

Are the emergency services unreliable? Simple litmus test - in an emergency will you ring them before you try to do it yourself? If yes, then they're reliable. If no, then they're not.

token101

seamus wrote: »

I know this is hard for some people to understand, but the Gardai aren't your personal security service. They're not sitting in the station five minutes down the road, just waiting for your personal call.

If everyone else is occupied doing something else, then they're not going to get to you in five minutes.

The urgency and the severity of the call will be determined by someone else before it's relayed to the Gardai on duty. It's your responsibility to ensure that you get this across to them.

Also, if it is that important, ring 999 instead of the station directly.

Are the emergency services unreliable? Simple litmus test - in an emergency will you ring them before you try to do it yourself? If yes, then they're reliable. If no, then they're not.

Personal security?? What? 40 minutes delay for an ongoing assault is totally unacceptable. Why is it they seem to be always able to spare resources for a traffic stop to check tax & insurance, but they lack them to prevent an assault? Couldn't possibly be that one generates revenue and the other is ultimately a revenue drain, could it?

Larianne

donvito99 wrote: »

They are criminally under-resourced and pathetically managed, relative to the setup in the UK and especially the North.

On some days, a majority of the ambulances for Dublin City are siting idle at the Mater. What patrol cars Guards do have now are on their last legs. DFB are having issues with items of equipment as fundamental as breathing apparatus.

All it will take is a major incident at say, the airport, to expose the system for what it really is, on the brink.

The reason for them sitting idle at the Mater is due to patients in the A&E still on their trolleys as the patients haven't been seen to or they are waiting on a hospital bed/trolley. So the lack of hospital beds has a knock on effect to the emergency services.

While working as a HCA, I had to accompany a patient to A&E there and I this is what I saw. There was 4 ambulance crew waiting around with the patients because they are literally stuck there until the patient is seen and taken off their trolleys. They can't move until the patient moves.

I think if you need the emergency services on how quickly they respond depends on where you live and if they are busy at that given moment. At my family home, the stretch of road used to be quite dangerous and had to call the ambulance/guards due to a number of crashes. They were pretty quick to respond each time.

HeidiHeidi

ComeraghBlue wrote: »

Called the guards on the neighbour a few weeks ago as he was kicking the ****e out of his Gf. the station is 5 mins away. the Garda turned up 40 mins later

BetterThanThou wrote: »

I have personally never called the fire department, so I cannot speak for them, though I have heard stories of them not even bothering to respond to burning cars in my area because it's so common.
I have called the police on a few occasions, including one where I expressed that some peoples lives were possibly in immediate danger and they took 2 hours to respond, the police station is 5-10 minutes down the road, tops.
I have called an ambulance on one occasion when someone was in critical condition and ended up in intensive care and came very close to death, it took over an hour for the ambulance to arrive. Again, the hospital is only 5-10 minutes down the road.
Does anyone think more money needs to be put into the emergency services in order to fix these problems? I understand the country is in a recession and cuts must be made, but the unreliability of the emergency services is dangerous, and I'm in a well equipped area, I can hardly imagine how bad the emergency services might be in other areas.

This is a constant bugbear of mine. The fact that a Garda station is so many minutes down the road is NOTHING to do with the response time of the car that will show up following your call. The cars do not sit outside the station awaiting calls - depending on the size of the district, they could be absolutely miles away, and that's before the possibility that they're already dealing with something else (possibly more serious, but maybe not), absolutely miles away. The Gardai that are in the station at the time of your call can't just abandon, grab a car and respond to your emergency, they're in the station for a reason.

It's a bit different (as I understand it) with ambulances and fire brigades which do return to base after calls to await the next one (assuming they ever manage to get their trolleys back from hosptial).

Just something that constantly gets mentioned, and gets my back up - proximity to station is nothing whatsoever to do with response times!

fingal raven

DFB AMBULANCES.jpg
Perhaps this photo of 8 of DFB's 12 Ambulances tied up at 1 A&E dept. typical Sat night might explain why even if there is a station 5 mins away there is no Ambulance there. A lot of the cases being Drug/Alcohol. But that is Ireland today !

angelfire9

token101 wrote: »

Personal security?? What? 40 minutes delay for an ongoing assault is totally unacceptable. Why is it they seem to be always able to spare resources for a traffic stop to check tax & insurance, but they lack them to prevent an assault? Couldn't possibly be that one generates revenue and the other is ultimately a revenue drain, could it?

Traffic corps do not respond to assaults