AN expectant mother involved in a road smash outside Altnagelvin hospital had to wait for an ambulance to come from Limavady, it can be revealed today.
The Health Minister has confirmed that an emergency ambulance was called from 15 miles away to the accident outside the Londonderry hospital on October 21.
In response to a question about the incident, Health Minister Michael McGimpsey said at the
Assembly that the ambulance was the nearest available resource to Altnagelvin and this was why it had been used.
A spokesman for the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service (NIAS) confirmed yesterday that at the time - approximately 8pm on October 21 - other A&E resources operating from Altnagelvin Ambulance Station were dealing with emergency activity in the Londonderry area and therefore the Limavady vehicle was dispatched to the smash outside the hospital.
The NIAS spokesman confirmed that the accident involved a pregnant woman and said: "At all times vehicles are tactically deployed to cover demand for emergency activity and at this time, cover for Limavady would have been provided from resources operating from Coleraine or clearing Altnagelvin resources i.e. the nearest available emergency resource.
"Whilst an ambulance is stationed at Limavady Ambulance Station this does not mean that it only responds to emergency activity in that area.
"At all times the nearest emergency resource will be dispatched to attend a call based on demand at that time."
A source within the ambulance service claimed there was an inadequate level of ambulance cover in the North West and that this could get much worse next April when cuts enforced under the treasury-imposed Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR) are brought to bear.
Front line A&E ambulance hours will then be reduced by 4,085 in Londonderry and by 6,396 in Omagh. Union officials have previously voiced fears that the clawback - to achieve "efficiency savings" - will result in lives being put at risk.
Quizzed on the deployment by East Londonderry MLA George Robinson at the Stormont Assembly the Health Minister Michael McGimpsey said: "The NIAS deploys its emergency response ambulance vehicles using a dynamic tactical deployment plan to ensure that the nearest resource responds to an emergency call.
"Because an ambulance is based at a particular station it does not follow that it will only respond to emergency calls at that location.
"In this case particular case the A&E ambulance based in Limavady was free and as the nearest available resource was dispatched."
concluded the Minister.
