Air ambulance helicopter carries out 53 time-critical missions in Roscommon since its launch – Feighan

Fine Gael TD for Roscommon/South Leitrim, Frank Feighan, has been informed by the Department of Health that the air ambulance service, formally known as the Emergency Aeromedical Service (EAS), has carried out 53 time-critical missions in Roscommon since its launch in the summer of 2012.

“I welcome this information which provides clear evidence that the EAS is playing a key role in providing critical air support options in response to major emergencies in the catchment area of Roscommon Hospital. This data, recorded up to December 2013, almost equates to one Roscommon mission a week since its launch.

“Indeed, the County Hospital itself has been used as a regular landing base for the air ambulance helicopter in order to respond to local emergencies in the catchment area. In one recent case, the air ambulance proved its worth when it quickly airlifted two men to hospital from the scene of a serious car accident in County Roscommon. Helicopter flight times from Roscommon Town and the wider county to major hospitals in the region are well under twenty minutes.

“Since its launch, the air ambulance service has operated 7 days a week, responding quickly to emergencies where patients needing rapid access to acute services in larger hospitals will be transported quickly to receive the appropriate medical care.

“Up until the end of October of this year, the service made a total of 464 missions from its base at Custume Barracks in Athlone. Significantly, a third of all taskings completed (153) have been for STEMIs, a type of serious heart attack where a coronary artery is completely blocked.

“The gold standard treatment for STEMIs is access to a 24 hour specialist centre such as Galway within 90 minutes of diagnosis, so that treatment to unblock the artery can begin. Where previously patients outside a 90 minute drive from such a centre would have been thrombolysed at the nearest appropriate facility, the EAS allows patients from a much wider area access to specialist emergency treatment.

“This pilot EAS service has been extended until next month while an inter-service group is currently reviewing its effectiveness, as had been planned from the outset. I think it’s abundantly clear that this service must continue given that it has now become a key component in the region’s emergency response infrastructure.

“In addition to this air ambulance service, the existing advanced ambulance service along with the planned new ambulance base in West Roscommon, represent significant additions to life-saving response measures being put in place to support Roscommon Hospital.”