Voluntary emergency service sees 16 percent increase in call-outs

Anton McNulty

A VOLUNTARY emergency call-out service in Mayo has had a busy last three months during which the number of call-outs increased by 16 percent.
THe Mayo Irish Community Rapid Response (ICRR) responded to a total of 43 calls for assistance from the HSE National Ambulance Service in the third quarter of 2016. This included three road traffic collisions, five cardiac arrests and a number of critically ill and injured patients, both adults and children.
The Mayo ICRR is a voluntary service and its doctor, Dr Jason Horan responds to an average of three calls per week.
Dr Horan, a Consultant in Emergency Medicine at Mayo University Hospital, volunteers with Mayo ICRR out of hours and weekends, as well during the working day.
The aim of Mayo ICRR is to bring critical care skills to the patient’s side so that meaningful interventions can be made which would otherwise have to wait until the patient reaches hospital. By providing early advanced medical care the volunteers hope to relieve pain, reduce disability and improve survival.
If required, Dr Horan is dispatched directly by Ambulance Control to the highest priority calls in this region.
“On one particular call-out to a cardiac arrest call, our doctor was quickly on-scene and worked with members of the public, who continued to perform CPR, which allowed our doctor to provide advanced care and the combined efforts successfully resuscitated the patient,” a Mayo ICRR spokesperson said in a statement.
“He then travelled to hospital with the patient and the HSE ambulance crew, continuing to provide care en route. This is an excellent example of the chain of survival in action and shows the importance of community-based responders,”
Mayo ICRR relies on the support of the local community it serves. It urgently need both financial and practical support. If you would like to become involved, please see www.mayoicrr.ie/help.