Charity-led air ambulance helps save Limerick lives

The Irish Community Rapid Response air ambulance was tasked to more than 20 emergency incidents in Limerick during 2020, which was its first full year in operation.

In addition to responding to 21 call-outs in Limerick, 46 patients from across the region were transported to University Hospital Limerick on board Helimed92.

The charity-led Air Ambulance, which based in Rathcoole in North Cork, works in tandem with the National Ambulance Service to provide both paramedic support and transport to hospital for seriously ill patients.

Overall, it was deployed to 490 incidents across 13 counties during 2020. 

New figures show July was the single busiest month, with the Air Ambulance being tasked a total of 59 times. Road traffic accidents account for the most incidents, with a total of 94 taskings throughout the year. 

Amongst the other incidents responded to were:

• cardiac arrests (81)
• general trauma calls (74)
• general medical calls (73)
• farming accidents (46)
• falls from heights (29)
   

While Cork, Kerry and Waterford were the counties most likely to require the service, the Air Ambulance also provided support in Tipperary, Clare, Wexford, Leitrim, Kildare, Kilkenny, Offaly, Roscommon, Galway and Limerick.

Commenting on the annual report, ICRR Chief Executive Mícheál Sheridan said: "The statistics show the demand that exists for an air ambulance based in the south of the country. The ICRR Air Ambulance is airborne in under four minutes of being tasked by the National Ambulance Service, and is thirty minutes away from most of the areas within its catchment. Dozens of lives have been saved as a result of the hard work of the crew, and care administered in a timely manner to hundreds of others. Ireland needs this service, and this service needs the continuing support of our community fundraisers and corporate supporters”.

From its base, the air ambulance can put a 25,000km2 area within 30 minutes of emergency medical care. It is staffed by advanced paramedics and EMTs from the National Ambulance Service while the running costs are funding through donations and fundraising.

Director of the National Ambulance Service, Martin Dunne, says the service is a great resource. “The ICRR Air Ambulance has been a great addition to our emergency response capacity. Our dispatch teams have the option of either the Aer Corps service from Tullamore, or the ICRR service from North Munster. This provides much needed and timely support to our on-road response teams operating across the country. Equally, the provision of these services ensures that critically ill patients can be brought to emergency trauma centres faster, which improves the likelihood of a successful outcome.”

The ICRR Air Ambulance currently has two helicopters at its medical aerodrome in Rathcoole, County Cork, only one of which  is operational at any one time, the other acting as a backup. 

A new faster helicopter with longer range capacity is due to be delivered later in the year.

“We already possess an additional helicopter asset, and we know that there will always be a demand for the service across the country.  A priority for us in 2021 is to work with other partners to ensure everyone on the island of Ireland is within 30 minutes of an air ambulance service either provided by ICRR or the Irish Aer Corps,” said Mr Sheridan.

ICRR recently launched its new Further Faster campaign to help raise the €1.5 million needed this year to fund the service and its new Air Ambulance helicopter. The appeal started with its 310,000 steps challenge Marching Through March where the public and companies are asked to participate in the challenge and to fundraise.

Full details are available at icrr.ie

Join our fundraising and fitness challenge for March. Take 10,000 steps every day in March – it doesn’t matter how!
Sign up for our #MarchingThroughMarch challenge on our #Facebook page and we’ll send you an ICRR neck warmer. Lets get moving! #challengeyourself pic.twitter.com/w2M4RS1gZU

— Irish Community Rapid Response (@ICRROfficial) January 28, 2021