New Athlone site to be sought for expanded ambulance base
The National Ambulance Service is to seek an alternative location for the development of a new Athlone ambulance base, after indicating that a site in Clonbrusk which had been earmarked for the project is unlikely to be big enough.
The service said it was "committed to building a new ambulance station in Athlone" and to raising staffing levels in order to "meet the increase in demand" in the area.
"While the current plan is to build a new station adjacent to the Primary Care Centre in the town, the size of the proposed site is unlikely to meet our needs and alternative site options may have to be explored," stated William Merriman, Director of Operations for the National Ambulance Service.
The comment from Mr Merriman was included in his response to Westmeath TD Robert Troy, who had sought "an update on the expansion of ambulance services in Athlone".
The response he received acknowledged that the number of calls the ambulance service was receiving in the Midlands had "increased significantly over recent years, without a corresponding increase in resources" and that it was "similar to many regions across the country" in this regard.
It went on to say that reasons for the higher demand in the Athlone area included an increase in the local population, which it said was expected to grow to between 40,000 and 50,000 by 2040.
The ambulance service also noted that the population of the area was "aging, similar to the overall population," and that the expansion of TUS and the development of "Centre Parcs and the Direct Provisions Centre (sic) in the vicinity" had all contributed to the "increase in demand for ambulance services from the Athlone station".
The response by Mr Merriman on behalf of the service said that, in addition to the planned development of the new ambulance station, it was intended to "increase the level of emergency ambulance service, particularly on Tuesday and Wednesday nights".
He noted that the "dynamic deployment" system used by the service meant its call taking and dispatch function was operated by the National Emergency Operations Centre across two sites, in Dublin and Ballyshannon, and that ambulance resources were dispatched based on their proximity to an incident rather than on a county boundary basis.
Deputy Troy welcomed the "detailed response" from the National Ambulance Service and said it was important that work to identify a site for the new ambulance station in Athlone was carried out as quickly as possible.
"The important thing is that site would be future-proofed. We don't want to shoehorn a facility into a site just because that site is in HSE ownership," said the Fianna Fáil TD.
"What's important is that they get the right site, the site that will be future-proofed, so that it will accommodate the facility now but can also be expanded in years to come.
"We need the HSE to move this along at pace. If they've decided that Clonbrusk is not the site then what they need to do is clearly and urgently identify a new site so that we can continue to move forward with this development."
He said the HSE had a property team in place with "the expertise, qualifications and local knowledge to get a site identified, put in planning permission, and ensure we can deliver the facility that's needed."
The TD added that he wanted to pay tribute to the ambulance service staff locally who were doing "exceptional work under what are not the best of conditions".