A volunteer group in west Waterford has embarked on an ambitious fundraising campaign to try and bring mobile A&E-type treatment to their area.
Based in Dungarvan, the Rapid Response Vehicle West Waterford committee is hoping to raise over €150,000 to buy a state-of-the-art emergency vehicle equipped with advanced medical facilities to cut down wait times for road incident and medical emergency victims.
According to the volunteers, who are concerned about the amount of road and farm incidents resulting in serious injuries and fatalities, such a vehicle would allow volunteer doctors and paramedics to bring emergency medical intervention to the scenes of such incidents.
The fundraising team has started negotiations with a medical response charity that already has two emergency vehicles covering the eastern half of the county, and once funds have been raised it is expected that Waterford will be the first county in Ireland to be covered by three of these "Critical Emergency Medical Response Vehicles".
Last year, Waterford-based doctors with one such pre-hospital emergency medical response charity, CRITICAL, in the east of the county responded to 97 incidents, with an additional 67 incidents attended this year already.
Chairman and spokesperson for the Rapid Response Vehicle for West Waterford group, Michael Ryan, spoke today of the "critical impact" of such initiatives.
"Our primary focus is to raise funds for the acquisition of this essential vehicle, which will undoubtedly make a profound difference in the lives of the people of West Waterford.
"This region is mostly rural with a lot of farmers working on their own and served by a predominantly poor road network. We have also seen an explosion of tourist numbers using our fabulous Copper Coast beaches and Greenway in the south of the region, as well as more and more hikers exploring the scenic Comeragh Mountains in the north.
"I myself had a cousin who lay unconscious on the ground for two hours from a brain bleed before an ambulance arrived to assist him, and with a health and emergency system under increasing pressure, we want to do our bit to alleviate it and ultimately save more lives."
