Ambulances and Access to University Hospital Galway

The more rural parts of Conamara South have been underserved by ambulances and the delays in reaching people in need is causing tragic avoidable deaths in the region. I want Galway County Council to liaise with the National Ambulance Service and Department of Health to improve the ambulance response times to rural areas and in the meantime, establish what the Galway Fire Brigade can do to support rural patients in an emergency.

Access to Galway University Hospital is increasingly difficult for patients traveling from outside the city. Car parking is nearly impossible to get due to staff demands on available parking spaces, lack of public transport and due to block scheduling of appointments. Public transport isn’t always reliable or suitable depending on the patient’s mobility or mental and physical capacity. I would like to see Galway County Council pilot a shuttle bus service specifically for patients on unreliable bus routes to get to hospital. In addition, patients requiring Irish language translation services should be facilitated as any other language is facilitated in the hospital. This is a Constitutional right that I fear some, particularly elderly patients are not getting the benefit of.