COMMUNITY AIR AMBULANCE

CORK AIR AMBULANCE AT RISK OF BEING GROUNDED

Funding shortfall leaves Irish Community Rapid Response needing €400,000 to continue.

The charity-run Irish Community Rapid Response (ICRR) air ambulance service in Cork has had to appeal for the public’s help after its funding efforts fell short, operators have said.

This has led to concerns that the service, which came into operation in 2019 and works in conjunction with the National Ambulance Service, could be temporarily grounded within weeks. It has been used some 250 times since it was first launched, assisting more than 200 patients by getting paramedics to the scene of an accident quickly. ICRR, which receives no Government funding, estimates that 600 missions could be flown in 2020, but this is now in doubt.

ICRR pilot John Murray has said that the Government has been approached in an attempt to cover the €1.5million per year running costs, but is awaiting a response. Both Kerry and Cork county councillors demanded that the HSE and Health Minister Simon Harris bail out the service, with the Minister believed to have requested the same, but in January the NAS said it was not going to provide the funding shortfall. However, a HSE spokesperson said later in January: “The National Ambulance Service is not involved in the funding of the ICRR, which is a charity organisation. It is important to note NAS continues to provide its ground service of emergency ambulance and air assets available (Aer Corp, Irish Coast Guard, ICRR) are an additional resource to the ground service.”

A Department of Health spokesperson said: “As requested by the Minister, the National Ambulance Service has engaged with Irish Community Rapid Response and is working with that organisation to ensure that every effort is made to protect service provision. The Minister urges both sides to further their efforts.”

The ICRR itself said in January: “The Air Ambulance, has been reduced to a five-day-a-week service, with immediate effect to ensure the service can continue for another six weeks.

“However, this cost-saving measure is a temporary fix to ensure six weeks of continued service before the financial viability of the service is reviewed again.”

The ICRR had raised €700,000 through donations, benefactors and public fundraising campaigns. In an efforts to recover the shortfall, attempted to raise €400,000 in fundraising through a GoFundMe page, but by January had only raised €35,514. This was boosted by a generous donation of €12,000 from jockey David Mullins, who rode Michael O’Leary’s Rule the World to victory at the Aintree Grand National in 2016.

He was airlifted by the ICRR after a fall at Thurles Racecourse last October, when he broke his T12 vertebrae and clavicle and needed rapid emergency medical help.

“The ICRR Air Ambulance came to help me when I needed it the most, a serious fall like I had could have been life-changing,” he said.