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Whistleblowing on ambulance response capability.

  • 21-09-2020 1:35pm
    #1
    political analyst
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,687 ✭✭✭


    https://www.rte.ie/news/investigations-unit/2020/0921/1166494-whistleblowers-fighting-to-be-heard/
    Former ambulance control worker Shirley McEntee was shocked by the response of some colleagues after she spoke out about ambulance response times in the midwest six years ago.

    "I spoke outside the clan, and you shouldn't do that," she explains.

    "I got a few really bad responses as well, nasty texts, phone calls I was called a snitch. People could call me a rat, but I am not a rat, I told the truth."

    In an RTÉ Investigates programme in 2014, Shirley McEntee claimed there was "not enough vehicles on the road, not enough crews in a 24hr period, you will be scrambling for an ambulance".

    After the broadcast, she felt isolated by some colleagues.

    "The isolation was people who would normally ring me never rang," she says. "You know your friends when you do things like this, with a lot of people there was silence, they didn't talk about it, like it never happened."

    But Shirley says she has no regrets. "If there's wrong things done, it should be spoken about I was really glad I did it."

    Given that many front-line health-care workers are under a lot of strain and feel that they are not respected by the government, why would they turn on one of their own for speaking out about lack of resources? It doesn't make sense.


Comments

  • #2
    CrankyHaus
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,281 ✭✭✭CrankyHaus


    Thanks OP. That's a good article.

    The impression I get is that the NAS is not very well run, to put it mildly.
    A few years back a guy was stabbed and had to be driven to hospital because the ambulance did not arrive in time. He later died. An NAS driver rostered on the night was in fact moonlighting for a private firm and was "Disciplined" with a warning.

    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/warning-for-paramedic-caught-moonlighting-as-man-died-sz5hlq5mntk

    I think the Dublin Fire Brigade is a more professional outfit, and that Dublin will be poorly served if NAS succeeds in getting sole control of ambulance services.


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