The University of Limerick Hospitals Group (ULHG) spent over €217,000 on private ambulances in 2014 despite establishing it’s own patient transport service two years ago.
Five Intermediate Care Service (ICS) ambulances were introduced in the mid-west in late 2013 by the National Ambulance Service (NAS). The vehicles, costing approximately €200,000 each, were rolled out to take over functions that were previously carried out by the frontline emergency ambulances.
These included inter-hospital transfers and transporting patients from acute hospitals such as University Hospital Limerick, Ennis Hospital and Nenagh Hospital to set-down facilities, particularly nursing homes.
The ICS was established to look after patients already within the healthcare system while freeing emergency ambulances to focus on services delivered by the Paramedics and Advanced Paramedics on Pre Hospital Emergency Care.
In the first quarter of 2014, ULHG spent €56,998 on private ambulances. In the same period this year, the group spent €78,996 on four approved private ambulance companies.
While the hospital group spent €49,383 in the second quarter of 2014, in the following two three-month periods, spending on private ambulances rose again to €55,215 and €56,047 respectively.
The total spend for 2014 was €217,643.
A spokeswoman for the UL Hospitals Group said: “The National Ambulance Service is the primary provider of ambulance services for the UL Hospitals Group. However, to meet unexpected demand for ambulance services, the UL Hospitals Group procures the services of private ambulance providers to transport patients.”
“UL Hospitals Group adheres to the HSE National Ambulance Service – National Framework Agreement concerning the procurement of private ambulances for inter-hospital patient transportation,” she said.
“The HSE National Ambulance Service – National Framework Agreement ranks four approved private ambulance providers in order of booking priority: Lifeline Ambulance, Medicall Ambulance, Beaumont Private Ambulance and Murray Ambulance,” the spokeswoman added.
The ICS ambulance vehicles have been built to transfer a number of stable patients, both sitting and on stretchers. The ambulances are also designed to transfer specialised stretchers.
The HSE also confirmed that ICS ambulances could be deployed in ‘first responder’ roles to emergencies until the arrival of an emergency ambulance crewed by either Advanced Paramedics or Paramedics.
Paramedics say however the the ICS ambulances, which are crewed by Emergency Medical Technicians (EMT’s) and not more qualified paramedics or advanced paramedics, are being increasingly used to respond to emergencies even though the vehicles are not equipped for this purpose.
They say this is partly because resources in the mid-west are so stretched that in one area alone, up to 15 shifts a week have to be covered by overtime.