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Press Release
The official launch of West Cork Rapid Response doctor service by Minister Éamon Ó Cuív, Minister of Community Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs took place in the Westlodge Hotel, Bantry on Friday 20th November, 2009.
To briefly outline the history and story of WCRR ….just under two years ago a group of us got together having experienced delays in getting medical treatment for family and friends following accidents and illnesses in all different parts of West Cork. Living as we do in a somewhat rural part of the country all of us were only too aware of the delays in getting to hospital and getting vital medical help and we decided that we would like to do something about it if we could at all. Initially we met in January 2008 in the Westlodge Hotel, Bantry – different people from all different backgrounds and experience and formed a group that we called the West Cork Air Ambulance Service. Originally our vision and aim was to start an Air Ambulance Service to the isolated parts of West Cork including the off shore islands. However following discussion and research we could see ourselves becoming even more isolated from the services we already had and decided in the short term to change our aim to that of complementing the emergency services we already had and didn’t want to lose. We learned of the importance of that “Golden Hour” following an accident or trauma and how important it is to get medical treatment in the sixty minutes following injury. In certain situations that Golden Hour can make all the difference between someone living and dying. Our aim was to complement if possible the services we already had in the area bringing a doctor to the scene of an accident or illness with the minimum of delay and getting that person to hospital as soon as was humanely possible.
Following from our second meeting we were lucky enough to be joined by Dr. Jason van der Velde, a doctor working and living in West Cork at that time and some other GPs who expressed an interest in helping us to try and achieve our aim and get our service up and running off the ground.
Eventually following discussion and debate we decided on a land-based unit capable of stabilising patients before transport and assisting the ambulance crews, whom we have always acknowledged provide a vital professional service to all the people in West Cork. We looked at who could provide this service and we all agreed that local doctors would be the key to this. We approached several GP’s locally and I must say overall we got mixed responses. But undaunted we were able to lean on a few willing individuals to get the operation going.
Before we could go any further we then had several meetings with A+E doctors and staff of Cork University Hospital to try and put ideas together and come up with a model we could try to move forward with. We learned of a service similar to the one we wanted to try and emulate which has been running in East Cork for a number of years run by Dr. Hugh Doran and his late father before him all on a voluntary basis.
Following several meetings with Dr. Stephen Cusack and his team in Cork we identified finally that we needed a 4 x 4 vehicle fully equipped with a defibrillator, ventilator, and life saving equipment, some of these things the committee had never even heard of before but we were quick learners! So we applied for funding and started collecting money locally. The best news we received was from Minister Ó Cuív’s department for the Clár programme to learn of our application having been approved for funding. So we purchased a vehicle and went about fitting it out with the necessary equipment and kit.
There was some correspondence with the Ambulance Service and after a formal meeting we got the ‘green light’ to go ahead and launch our service. So we have been operating in a limited capacity since mid-March of this year and in our first 6 months operations we have saved the lives of 11 people in West Cork… 3 of them children.
That’s 2 lives saved every month…
Let me give you a more detailed summary of the first 6 months statistics:
West Cork Rapid Response voluntarily managed 78 patients from 48 call outs. This is an average of 8 call outs per month or 13 patients a month. 25% of our patients are children under the age of 16.
Our work has not stopped here. We have additionally supported the HSE in transferring 4 critically ill Cork babies all the way to specialist care in Dublin and even abroad, through the use of our highly specialised pre-hospital intensive care ventilator and monitoring equipment. We operate to the highly demanding standards imposed by the Association of Anesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland for providing pre-hospital anesthetics and critical care interventions… to put it simply, the same standard of equipment, drugs, monitoring and personnel on the side of the road that you would expect in hospital, and no less…
We do so entirely in conjunction with a rapidly modernising and expanding HSE ambulance service. I wish to use this opportunity to acknowledge and wholeheartedly support the introduction of the superb Advanced Paramedic programme into West Cork. More lives will undoubtedly be saved.
To the overall HSE ambulance response, in 35% of all call outs, we have enabled a service over and above existing ambulance service capabilities, quite literally bringing the skills, drugs and equipment of the emergency room to the side of the road.
However, it is probably in the simple things, that we are making the biggest impact in our community. Our doctors prevented a staggering 33 out of a possible 78 ambulance journeys, standing down an ambulance in 27% of all calls, a figure closely resembling the 31% of ambulance journeys prevented by pre-hospital doctors in Cork, as published by Professor Cusack last year in the Irish Medical Journal. Think about this for a moment….
We have a finite ambulance resource in West Cork. When we treat and discharge a patient at the scene, we immediately free up, in 27% of all call outs, a vital life saving ambulance resource for another West Cork person in distress.
West Cork Rapid Response … Saving 2 lives a month in West Cork
We are a voluntary committee working with donations that we receive from the people of West Cork. All of this would not be possible without the hard work and dedication of our committee members all doing this in their free time. If there is anybody out there with time on their hands who would be willing to join the committee and bring new ideas we would be delighted to have you assist us.
Our vision is to have more vehicles on the road with more GP’s giving of their time and service to us and maybe even in the future an air service to complement this.
by John Kearney, Chairman
The Irish Times – Tuesday, November 3, 2009
West Cork has own emergency SUV
by ÁILÍN QUINLAN
THEIR DREAM is to have a flying doctor-type service for the sprawling terrain in which they live, but so far one small community has helped save 11 lives with a special accident and emergency vehicle.
The West Cork Rapid Response service was established last March by a group of residents who decided their far-flung region needed extra emergency medical cover.
“If you live in a remote part of west Cork you could be two hours away from accident and emergency help,” explained spokesman and Baltimore-based businessman, John Kearney.
“There are four ambulances based in the region, but there can be times when two or even three of them are already busy.”
Long term, he said, the group aims to get a flying doctor-style helicopter service up and running, but they’ve started with a 4X4 operating out of Bantry which is staffed by volunteer doctors and carries vital medical equipment. The vehicle, which cost around €100,000 to purchase and equip – about €70,000 of which was grant-aided by the Department of Community Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs and the rest raised locally – went into operation last March under the 999 emergency call-out system following negotiations with the HSE.
The SUV is on call four to five days a week and can generally get to a scene within 45 minutes, said Mr Kearney.
“We have one or two doctors available on a part-time basis, while a number of GPs are currently upskilling in AE techniques.
“Ultimately, we hope to have a full roster of doctors available on a 24-hour call-out rota, but at the moment we are operating on an availability basis.
“We’re contacted through the 999 system and if we’re on service we’ll be dispatched. We’re currently operating four or five days a week, but hope to build up to a seven-day roster.”
Between March and September, the service took part in 60 call-outs. “We were called out to help everyone from babies to teenagers, adults and the elderly and dealt with everything from heart attacks to road traffic, domestic and marine accidents,” said Mr Kearney.
The service – to be formally launched in Bantry by Community Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs Minister Eamon Ó Cuív on Friday November 20th – depends heavily on volunteers.
“It wouldn’t be possible without the GPs who give up their time and the dedicated committee members who do everything from fundraising to managing the rota system,” he added.
This progressive club has worked hard over the years to provide funds for many charities in the area and have spent the past weeks gathering funds for WCRR by getting club members and members of the public to support various events such as a Rossmore Drama Night/Childrens Sandcastle Competition at Inchydoney/Bar-B-Que at Kitty Mac’s to name but a few.
Thanks a million for all your efforts, this money will help save lives in West Cork.
In the photo: Dr Jason Van Der Velde, Robert Fennell, Padraig Griffin, Alan Buttimer, Anne Murphy, and Dena O’Donovan
with a cheque for EUR 1,000
Auction Lot listAuction Poster
Well lads, I went to the WCRR Fundraising Auction at Fishers Cross Pub last night. It was lashing rain for the whole night, There was flooding everywhere, I was surprised at the number of people who actually ventured out. We had 2 hours of music with the band, Blue Velvet and The Underdogs who played for Free, then we had a small quiz with everyone paying one euro for a quiz sheet and the winner getting a fifty euro voucher. Then the auction started… 54 lots, great bidding on some items and then of course some items were sold below actual value, but then that’s the luck of the draw… I had to come back to work at the night club at 11.30 so left halfway through the auction. Great fun though. I parked the vehicle outside the pub. Thanks to Denis O’Donovan of Fishers Cross Pub for his tolerance…. !!!!!!!
Geeeezzzz Lads, our cash has just been counted from our Auction Night at Fishers Cross Bar…. (Compliments of Robin and Jeannie Jones and Justin Brett who organised the whole affair…) thanks to all who participated and helped to make it a success!! eur 1295.00 wow grrrreat ! Dena
Having chosen July for our first walk, we may have hoped for summer. The brave band set off from The Sheep’s Head Pub , having consumed some freshly cooked scones, washed down with tea or coffee. No hard stuff for this group of walkers. the walkers were: Josie Heffernan, Niall Gilmore,John Kearney, Declan Hurley, Kathleen Harrington, Norma Harrington, JimmyTobin and Robert Fennell.
Well we left in mist, guided by Jimmy Tobin, of round Ireland walking fame. Up towards Clashadoo, and on to the ridge to join the Sheep’s Head Way, we talked of Tom Whitty as we made it to the top of the ridge. Turning East we headed on with some passing showers
to remind us the views of Bantry bay are better from a height.
Back through Coomkeen, and on into the heaviest rain of the day. Then we turned at the bridge, and the sun came out, as we returned to have our lunch prepared by Pat Flynn and his staff at the Sheep’s Head Pub.
When is the next walk I hear you say ?
