The wilds of Connemara may now be one of the safest places in Ireland to have a cardiac arrest, thanks to a dedicated ambulance commissioned by Croí, the Galway-based heart charity.
The State's first "coronary care unit on wheels" will be able to halve the response time for cardiac victims throughout Galway city and county when it comes into service today.
The cardiac ambulance is unique in that it carries a doctor on board who will bring hospital coronary care to the patient in tandem with highly-trained ambulance personnel. This may mean the difference between life, serious illness, or worse, for an estimated 800 emergency cases in the region annually. The new ambulance carries sophisticated diagnostic and advanced communications equipment, allowing for direct links to the hospital coronary care unit. It can transmit information such as electrocardiograms to the hospital for consultation with the cardiac team.
The "fast track" diagnosis facilitates direct admission to the coronary care unit or to the angiography laboratory for rescue angioplasty in the case of an acute heart attack - without having to go through casualty.
"This is unique to Ireland and is particularly good for a rural setting, allowing therapy in the field," Dr Jim Crowley, consultant cardiologist at University College Hospital, Galway, told The Irish Times. Currently, the Western Health Board fleet of 42 ambulances can avail of ten Lifepack 12 combined ECG monitors with defibrillator. An ambulance crew detecting a cardiac arrest can call out the cardiac ambulance to meet it en route to the hospital.
The new dedicated ambulance represents an investment of over €150,000 by Croí and the Western Health Board, according to Mr Neil Johnson, chief executive of Croí. It replaces the existing Croí ambulance, introduced in 1996 with a 30-mile radius from Galway.
Ms Louise Dobbins, co-ordinator of cardiac services with Galway regional hospitals, said that it should reduce the "call to needle time" to less than 90 minutes, and the "door to needle time", as in hospital admission, to less than 30 minutes.
