Protestors Form Human Chain To Save Youghal Ambulance.
By Christy Parker | Video: Kieran McCarthy | Reporter: Shane Supple | Photo: Michael Hussey

OVER 500 PEOPLE formed a 600-metre protest chain in Youghal yesterday afternoon against the HSE’s plan to replace the town’s ambulance service with a first responder paramedic car. Local politicians, including Sinn Fein TD Sandra McLellan and Fianna Fail Mayor Eoin Coyne, joined the participants at the Foxhole Business Park, two miles from the town centre.
Click on the video below to watch the Save Youghal Ambulance march on Friday 29th July 2011

The protesters waved placards and chanted “Save Youghal ambulance,” as passing traffic hooted horns in support. Long traffic tailbacks formed when the demonstrators eventually marched half a mile to the Rhincrew roundabout and back.

The commitment was serious and determined but a strong air of sociability and cohesion persisted, suggesting a strong unity amongst sundry sectors of a community united under a common cause. It heralds well for future defiance and –dare one say it- if success does not lie at the end of this campaign, it has already strengthened self-belief amongst the populace.

Emily Fitzgerald, a 64 year-old grandmother, said she was protesting because “none of us know when we might need an ambulance.” Nearby, 19 year-old supermarket worker Katie Murphy said it was “a disgrace that someone might have to wait up to an hour for an ambulance.”

Forty three year-old Feargal Nolan, a UCC equipment engineer and father of three, said a town in a catchment area of 40,000 and 30 miles from Cork city “cannot afford to lose an ambulance. “ We pay taxes and levies and they say cutbacks won’t affect frontline services. Then they take away our ambulance,” he fumed.

Tom Walshe, 68, was one of three former class-mates yards in close proximity on the line. Tom was supporting the retention of a service whose paramedics came to his assistance when he suffered a heart attack ten years ago. “I couldn’t praise them highly enough,” he stressed.

Deputy McLellan said, “a rapid response vehicle manned by a medical technician is not the same as an ambulance manned by advanced paramedics. At some stage it won’t work and lives will be lost.”

Two days previous, an inaugural public meeting convened by the Save Youghal Ambulance committee, heard an e-mail sent to Labour TD Sean Sherlock last March. The message said the proposal was not cost-saving, but part of a phased strategy to abolish on-call ambulance service nationally and without budget cuts. As Youghal operates an on-call service only on midweek nights, the decision to remove the service totally from September 1st has mystified the town.

The Executive’s claim that 24/7 on-duty service will be installed in Phase 2 has been sceptically received and the HSE has said it won’t discuss the issue publicly until negotiations are concluded with SIPTU who, it says, welcomes the plan.

PRO Jim Flanagan says the group may take its protest to the Dail, while hoping the HSE will agree to meet a delegation, including local GP representation. Another demonstration, in Youghal town centre, is planned for Saturday next, August 6th.

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