Aged Ambulances Slammed While Maternity Suffering Too

There's a two-pronged crisis looming in the provision of health services in Northern Ireland.

On top of claims that many of the Province's ambulances are too old for service, a leading health professional has claimed that maternity services are close to breaking point.

Joy Poots Chair of the Royal Jubilee Maternity Liaison Committee and Chair of the Regional Group of Maternity Liaison Committees said: "This is a critical situation. The hospitals cannot cope with any additional births. Any increased pressure as a result of the desire to cut costs will have severe health and safety implications for patients.

"If the proposed cuts to maternity units go ahead, it will only be a matter of time before the Northern Ireland maternity service as a whole goes into complete melt down. These cuts in front line services simply must not go ahead."

The units at all of the major hospitals here are being forced to drastically exceed capacity limitations, putting the health of both mothers and new born babies in significant danger, she claimed, noting that this will only be exacerbated if the planned maternity closures at local hospitals such as at Lisburn's Lagan Valley go ahead.

Meanwhile, more than one in three ambulances in Northern Ireland breach guidelines because they are too old, according to shock figures obtained from the Department of Health.

South Down MLA Jim Wells said this was not acceptable: "This information raises serious questions about the capacity of our ambulance fleet to respond to emergencies such as road accidents or house fires in a satisfactory and speedy manner."

Guidelines from an ambulance advisory group stipulate vehicles should be replaced when they are more than five-years-old.

However, the figures he obtained show that 12 ambulances have been on Northern Ireland's roads for nine years.

Newry, Newcastle, Carrickfergus, Larne, Ballymena, Ballycastle, Limavady, Dungannon and Enniskillen all have a 999 ambulance which has more than 200,000 miles on the clock.

(BMcC)