Number of ambulance calls-out in west doubles in 10 years - Mayo TD

Fresh statistics released to Mayo Aontú TD Paul Lawless show that the number of 'activated emergency calls' in the west region, which includes Mayo, increased from 22,204 in 2015 to 40,738 in 2024.

Deputy Lawless has spoken in the Dáil in support of ambulance service workers who are on strike at the moment.

Deputy Lawless said: "In recent months I have put a series of questions to the Health Minister in relation to ambulance response times, the length of time it takes for an ambulance to off load a patient at the hospital and be ready for the next call out, and so on.

"Incredibly due to staff constraints in the National Ambulance Service and the ongoing dispute about pay, the Key Performance Indicator data is not being collated any more.

"We had a scandalous situation in Mayo in January where Stephen Lavelle (RIP) was left without an ambulance to the point where his family had to drive him the 50 miles to the hospital.

"There are whole parts of Mayo, which have been left with little ambulance cover today. I support the ambulance workers. Our frontline ambulance workers are blameless in this industrial action.

"This matter has been before the Labour court and an independent report was commissioned on upgrading staff salaries, but the HSE has failed to implement the recommendations.

"Ambulances are under immense pressure. Statistics released to Aontú show that the number of ambulance callouts in the western region has nearly doubled in ten years.

"There were 22,000 activated emergency calls in 2015 here and in 2024 there were 40,000.

"This level of pressure on the service should result in more recruitment and more ambulances for the county, and proper pay scales is one way to encourage more people to join the service", added Lawless.