A failure to increase the Tipperary ambulance fleet is being highlighted by paramedics who say the service is under increasing pressure.
Freedom of Information figures published this week show that it took an ambulance over an hour to arrive at a life-threatening emergency 63 times between April and June.
This included one call out in Tipperary which took one hour and 43 minutes for an ambulance to arrive.
Brendan Flynn is a national rep for the National Ambulance Service Representative Association.
He’s says limited resources are a major concern.
“If you’re going to close down local hospitals you’ve got to have something in place – that something is obviously the likes of the ambulance service.”
“Now the ambulance service just needs extra vehicles to shore up the service. No increase in vehicles in the guts of 20 years in North Tipperary.”
“The population has increased – we’ve got an older population – and we’re expected to bring them to these new regional centres which means extra travel time.”
