THE University of Limerick hospitals group spent almost €1.8 million on private ambulances over the past seven years.
Speaking in the Dáil on this Wednesday, Limerick Sinn Féin TD Maurice Quinlivan said that the money should instead have been spent purchasing and staffing new ambulances.
“Ambulance services have suffered from years of cuts, underinvestment, and privatisation with more than €31 million being spent on private ambulances by the HSE since 2011.
“Many different hospitals contributed to this high spend including UHL group of hospitals which spent €1,796,744 on private ambulances since 2011,” he revealed.
As the cost of purchasing a fully equipped emergency ambulance is €222,000 that would mean we could have purchased and retained 8 ambulances in the UHL hospital group area for what we have spent on private ambulances.
by Tom McCullough
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