Sinn Féin’s Chris Hazzard MLA has this week raised serious concerns with the Health Minister regarding a “complete absence of ambulance cover” in the Down area as local crews have been called into cover the Belfast area.
The local MLA said: “It has been brought to my attention that in the last month the Down area has been left with no ambulance cover on a number of occasions as crews have been sucked into the Belfast area. This is wholly unacceptable and I’ve asked the Minister to urgently assess the situation and bring clarity to what is a life or death issue.
“Bearing in mind that the Minister recently accepted our argument that additional resources had to be invested into improving Ambulance response times in rural areas such as South Down, it would be farcical if only a number of months later we were faced with no cover at all due to a logjam in Belfast.
Mr Hazzard added: “South Down is a large rural area with very specific health challenges; we absolutely must have appropriate ambulance cover that can meet these needs in a speedy manner.”
