“We must find a way of doing things better”

A MAYO priest has told a funeral congregation that “we must find a way of doing things better” after it emerged an ambulance failed to arrive to bring an seriously ill Erris man to hospital.

Fr Kevin Hegarty, the parish priest of Kilmore Erris, made the comments at the funeral Mass of Stephen Lavelle from Ardmore, Binghamstown near Belmullet who passed away in Mayo University Hospital on Sunday, January 11 after suddenly falling ill near his home the previous day.

There is anger in the Erris community after it emerged that an ambulance did not arrive in Binghamstown in time to bring Mr Lavelle to hospital and members of his family had to drive him to the Castlebar hospital, where he later passed away.

Speaking at the funeral Mass in St Joseph’s Church, Binghamstown on Friday afternoon, Fr Hegarty said that Mr Lavelle did not receive the medical help which families have “have a right to expect” and this has added to their suffering and loss.

“We are also aware that last Saturday was a day of great trauma for you [Lavelle family]. The medical help that families have a right to expect was not available at that time in the way that Stephen required. We know that has added to the suffering of his loss over the last few days. As a community and a society we must find a way of doing things better,” Fr Hegarty said in his homily.

Fr Kevin Hegarty 

Huge crowds attended the funeral Mass of Mr Lavelle, a 68-year-old married father and grandfather who Fr Hegarty said still had so much to live for.

Solidarity

He said the whole community expressed sympathy and solidarity to his wife Martina; sons, Anthony and Patrick, eight grandchildren and extended family members.

“We live in a community and our lives touch each other and when one person is sad there is a sense we are all sad. When a family is heartbroken we appreciate where they are at. We are with you in solidarity and sympathy and prayer,” said Fr Hegarty.

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The absence of a reliable ambulance service for the north Mayo region has prompted calls for a campaign to highlight the problems faced by people living in the region.

The matter was raised in the Dáil on Thursday by local TD Rose Conway-Walsh who described the service as being 'dire and unsustainable' and claimed people in parts of Mayo who call for an ambulance are not told when it will arrive.

“I want to raise the issue of the lack of ambulance services, particularly in north Mayo and the west of Ireland more widely,” the Sinn Féin TD told the Taoiseach in the Dáil.

“It is a dire situation that I have never seen as bad in all of my time, where people cannot get an ambulance on time. There are incidents where people have had to travel 50 miles on very bad roads to get to the nearest hospital. When people call an ambulance, they cannot even be told when it is going to come.

“My question is this - does the Taoiseach know how many people are dying prematurely because they cannot get an ambulance on time? What is he going to do about it?” she asked.

In response, An Taoiseach said there is a national framework on the organisation and administration of ambulances and he will refer her question to the National Ambulance Service.

Speaking after raising the issue in the Dáil, Deputy Conway-Walsh called for urgent intervention from the Taoiseach and the Minister for Health to lead a co-ordinated government response and improve the overall provision of ambulance services for Mayo communities.

Sinn Féin TD Rose Conway-Walsh raised lack of ambulance cover in the Dáil 

“I want to commend in the strongest possible terms the dedicated work of the ambulance services and hospital staff in Co Mayo, and indeed the staff of all emergency services in the West, who have collectively saved the lives of countless loved ones, but they are working under huge stress in a broken system.

'Dire situation'

“The lack of ambulance services, particularly in north Mayo, is a dire situation that I have never seen as bad in all my time as a public representative, where people cannot get an ambulance on time.

“Too many people in life-threatening situations are finding themselves in the horrific scenario whereby they cannot be told when an ambulance is going to arrive, with some patients left waiting hours. Others have taken it upon themselves to travel 50 miles on very bad roads to get to the nearest hospital when an ambulance didn’t arrive.

“For those who have managed to get in an ambulance, they are being brought to overcrowded Emergency Departments that do not have adequate staffing or the bed capacity to accept them. We cannot have a situation whereby ambulances are effectively being taken off the road to be used as overflow capacity for hospitals.

“That is why I asked the Taoiseach directly if he knew how many lives have been cut short as a result of ambulances being unavailable to respond to emergencies on time,” she said.

Conway-Walsh stressed that simply allocating funding for additional ambulances, without addressing the wider failures in the health and social care system, will not resolve the crisis.

“Providing additional funding for more ambulances only for them to be left queueing at overcrowded Emergency Departments is not the answer either.

'System-wide failure'

This is not an ambulance-only problem, it is a system-wide failure that requires a coordinated government response to tackle the bottlenecks preventing patients from moving through the health system.

“In addition to more ambulance crews, we need serious investment in step-down beds, homecare packages and community support, so that patients who are medically fit for discharge can leave hospital safely and quickly. This would immediately free up hospital beds, reduce Emergency Department overcrowding, and allow ambulances to get back on the road.

“This crisis demands coordinated, cross-departmental action from the Government before more families are left devastated by the avoidable loss of their loved ones. Lives in the west depend on it,” she concluded.