Chapter 1: What is the reason behind the ambulance workers' strike?
Around 2,000 workers at the National Ambulance Service, who are members of CIP2 and Unite, are engaged in a 24-hour strike in a dispute over pay. Pickets are placed at ambulance bases around the country as part of the action which got underway just over an hour ago at 8am.
The HSE has warned of disruption to ambulance services and said there may be long delays in responding to non-life-threatening calls. For more on this, I'm joined by Sean Moynihan, CEO of Alone. Sean, good morning to you. Good morning. How much impact is this going to have on users of your services?
I think it's going to have a very large impact. I think we all realise how far the ambulance service has developed over the last few years. And it's no longer about bringing people from A to B, but the amount of care and support and paramedic support they provide. But I think for the over 200,000 older people who live on their own and those who use our services who have services,
nearly six times the use of the A&E as the average older person, this could have huge impact. So I think what we want to make sure is that if any older person is uncertain, that ultimately is they still take action, whether they reach out for an ambulance, whether they reach out to primary care, friends, family or to us to make sure that they don't delay seeking help if they feel they need it.
Absolutely. Now, as I say, I think it's non-life-threatening calls that are not being dealt with. Life-threatening calls obviously still will be dealt with. But is that the worry for an older person on their own, perhaps more vulnerable, that it'll be psychologically quite worrying for them, won't it, if they feel that help is not going to be there?
I think so. And then, unfortunately, whether it's something like a fall or a stroke or a heart attack, like I'm not a clinician and neither are most other people. So how do you define for yourself what is life-threatening? And we just don't want to put off anybody making a phone call to reach out for help so that people who are qualified can actually distinguish
can diagnose or distinguish what's important and what's not.
Yeah, and what the HSE is saying is that members of the public who are worried or have a concern should contact their GPs, perhaps their pharmacies for non-emergencies, and that they can get help in those places.
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Chapter 2: How will the strike affect ambulance services and users?
And I think that's the most important message.
If people have a concern about their health and ultimately is obviously with those, you know, the large cohort of older people we have living over 85 and large cohort of people who may not have their own transport anymore or may not be on good transport links to self-transport or friends or family, we really just need to encourage everybody not to worry, but ultimately reach out to primary care, reach out to their GP, reach out to their pharmacist,
reach out to people like ourselves and ultimately make sure they get the support they need.
And for people listening in who may know somebody, a neighbour or somebody in their community who's older, who's living alone, is there anything they can do to help while emergency services obviously inevitably are stretched at the moment?
Yeah, look, I think there's always two ways. Older people are their own best resource in one way. So if anybody has any concerns, they should reach out to their support group.
And on the fair side, for those who are family, friends, especially in advanced older age and who they know have maybe been struggling with some health conditions, ultimately to reach out and check in this morning and make sure they're OK.
Yeah, you mentioned that users of your services are six times more likely to use the emergency health services. Why is that?
I think, I suppose, you know, older people are not just one big group. Like every age group, there are people thriving, there are older people running businesses, running 5Ks, putting us all to shame. But then there are also people facing isolation, loneliness, poor health, poor housing and poor income.
And I suppose what we do is generally work with those older people who are high users of the health service, who need support to age at home and ultimately may not have that support readily available online. or may not have good housing or good finances.
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