Ambulance workers threaten industrial action
Ambulance Siptu Linehan Employees Currently Roughly 1,800 Among Picture: Counts Service Membership Dan National Its
A union representing ambulance workers has threatened industrial action over “promises not being honoured” after an HSE internal audit showed it does not know how many functioning emergency vehicles it has.
Siptu said that insufficient priority has been given to the National Ambulance Service (NAS) in recent years, and that the union is “considering all options” in terms of how it may respond.
The HSE’s internal audit of the NAS’s procurement and records processes found that the organisation’s listings regarding its own stock of emergency vehicles were “incomplete” and “not reflective” of the figures carried in the HSE’s annual reports.
It further found that there was no nationwide register for breakdowns of NAS vehicles, and that the information which was available was “inaccurate” and inconsistent.
Five emergency ambulances were written off in 2023 after being involved in accidents — despite this, there are currently no reserve emergency ambulances available anywhere in Ireland, something the HSE said “impacts ability to provide adequate service delivery”.
Siptu health organiser John McCamley said however, that the audit was symptomatic of the fact that a number of disputes have arisen between the NAS and the HSE in recent years, and that “not enough priority” has been given to the service.
He said that on the basis of the audit, Siptu had been engaging with the HSE “for some time” in terms of updating the ambulance fleet.
“While new vehicles will be welcome, there is an issue with staffing as well.
"It is an ongoing issue that we have,” Mr McCamley said.
He said this was promises made by the HSE “not being honoured”, including commitments regarding investment in staffing and in emergency vehicles.
“It is an issue ongoing for more than 10 years now,” Mr McCamley said, adding that delays in the process surrounding the delivery of a new framework for the NAS “have resulted in our members not having faith that any commitments will be honoured”.
He added that “in terms of recruitment there are also ongoing issues with the retention of staff as well”.
“There are issues with response times, and that’s because ambulances are covering long distances, and that’s down to staffing or a lack thereof in the relevant areas,” he said.
While financial commitments made by the HSE towards the NAS for next year are “welcome”, there is “a whole lot of other investment that is needed in order to secure a modern professional ambulance service within the country,” Mr McCamley said.
“At the moment we are eying a ballot of our members in terms of what steps to take, which could lead to industrial action,” he said, adding that a meeting of the NAS’s national committee was due to take place on Wednesday “in which we will be looking at all options”.
Siptu currently counts roughly 1,800 NAS employees among its membership.
A HSE spokesperson said that the NAS received extra capital funding in September 2024, increasing the total capital allocation for fleet to €34.3m.
Some €33.9m of this funding is currently committed to new fleet and assets, which will address the issues raised in the internal audit, the spokesperson said.
Through the increased allocation, NAS have commissioned into service 94 emergency ambulances, 10 community paramedicine vehicles, eight critical care and retrieval ambulances, and a further eight driver training vehicles in line with the NAS vehicle replacement policy, the HSE said.
In early 2023 the NAS claimed it needed an additional 4,385 full-time staff out to 2031 in order to cater for the rise in demand for its services it was experiencing.
The crisis in ambulance service delivery is most keenly felt in the southwest, with Cork boasting the longest wait times for an ambulance in the country.