Sinn Féin meets Ambulance Service on ‘inadequacy’ of Derg cover

Sinn Féin councillors Maolíosa Mc Hugh and Kieran Mc Guire have held a meeting with senior Ambulance Service officials to press them on ongoing concerns over ‘inadequate levels of ambulance cover’ being provided in the Derg area of Strabane District Council.

In a joint statement following the meeting with Mr Brian Mc Neill (Ambulance Service Headquarters) and Frank Orr (Western Division Area Manager) the Sinn Féin elected representatives said,

“Sinn Féin has been highlighting the issue of inadequate ambulance cover being provided for the people of Derg area over recent years and in particular how the ambulance located at the Castlederg station always appears to be the first to be moved out to provide cover elsewhere within Western Division area.

“It is clear that this practice has resulted in delayed response times to this area. This was illustrated earlier this year when Hungarian national Sandor Lakatos died suddenly of a heart attack in Castlederg and the ambulance had to come from Omagh. This is not to say that Mr Lakatos would still be alive today had the ambulance to come from the local station, but obviously it increases a person’s chance of survival if an ambulance is on site quicker.

“From our on the ground knowledge we believe that Castlederg and its large rural hinterlands is being left without ‘onsite’ ambulance cover for between 20-25% of the time and at the meeting Mr Frank Orr gave us commitment to come back within 1 month to provide us with the exact statistics as to the amount of time the Castlederg ambulance is withdrawn to provide cover to other areas..

“Mr Brian Mc Neill of Ambulance Headquarters took our concerns on board and gave us a commitment to assess current ambulance service provision within the Division to see what, if any, improvements can be made.