By Sean Moriarty

Ireland's Community Air Ambulance service is to get Government funding for the first time ever since its foundation.

The team behind the Irish Community Air Ambulance is to step back from providing a Helicopter Emergency Medical Service (HEMS) and will focus on its on-the-ground team of volunteer doctors and drivers.

The helicopter element of its services will be taken over by a Government agency - and as a result the organisation will change its name to CRITICAL.

The charity will continue to provide the Air Ambulance until February 28 and will then pass the baton to the new State-funded HEMS service based in the South West.

The charity will then focus on expanding its network of Volunteer Emergency Medical Responders into more communities across the country.

The charity was established in 2009 as the Irish Community Rapid Response, and in 2019 it successfully launched Ireland’s first and only charity Air Ambulance.

Since then, it has been tasked to more than 1,500 serious incidents and emergencies.

The charity has a fleet of Rapid Response Vehicles which have facilitated Critical Care Doctors and experienced GPs to respond to more than 1,800 incidents since 2020 alone.

Their teams are already on the ground in counties Mayo, Donegal and Dublin, with additional volunteer doctors set to join them in Kildare, Dublin, Wicklow and Waterford in the coming months.

“The Irish Community Air Ambulance was established by our charity in 2019 in response to what we knew was a need for a HEMS service in the south west of Ireland. We have consistently shown how vital the service is, so much so that it is now set to be fully funded by the State,” Micheál Sheridan, CEO of CRITICAL, said.

“We would like to thank all of those who helped keep HeliMed92 flying for the past couple of years and the HSE for its support over the last 10 months. We will now focus our efforts on our ground based Volunteer Emergency Medical Response initiative and bring Critical and Advanced levels of care to more communities across Ireland, both rural and urban.”

CRITICAL will work closely with the National Ambulance Service and has a number of Volunteer Emergency Medicine Doctors and Volunteer Emergency Medical Responders around the country. These volunteers are tasked by the National Ambulance Service to support the provision of pre-hospital emergency care to critically ill and injured patients in their local communities.

“We’re excited to focus on our network of volunteer critical and advanced care doctors. We have plans to expand this network and are already working with the National Ambulance Service in this regard. Our ground teams responded to more than 1,800 incidents over the last three years alone, working in partnership with the emergency services to give people the very best chance of survival when they find themselves seriously ill or injured,” added Mr Sheridan.

The charity has a fleet of Rapid Response Vehicles which have facilitated Critical Care Doctors and experienced GPs to respond to more than 1,800 incidents since 2020 alone. Their teams are already on the ground in counties Mayo, Donegal and Dublin, with additional volunteer doctors set to join them in Kildare, Dublin, Wicklow and Waterford in the coming months.

RESOURCES

In 2022 the charity’s resources were tasked to a total of 1,000 calls. Road Traffic Collisions and Cardiac Arrests accounted for almost half of all incidents.

The organisation will fundraise to kit out its volunteers so they can continue their life-saving work.

It costs an average of €25,000 to establish an Advanced Level Volunteer Doctor in the community; and €120,000 to put a new Critical Care Response Vehicle on the road.

The charity will be launching a new website in the coming weeks, in the meantime visit communityairambulance.ie or its social media channels for updates.