A Waterford Councillor has highlighted the lack of ambulance cover for the area.
Cllr Conor McGuinness says there is often just one ambulance responsible for covering the region from Midleton in Cork to Waterford City.
It comes after he received information from within the National Ambulance Service stating that West Waterford has been left without ambulance cover on more than one occassion, with Sunday night being the most recent one.
Speaking to Beat News, and appealing to Minister for Health, Stephen Donnelly, he said:
"Don't let people die waiting for an ambulance. Don't add to the stress and misery and add to negative outcomes for patients. Get to grips with this issue and get to grips with it now."
Cllr McGuinness added that a paramedics job is "near on impossible" and they are already working overwhelming hours, adding four to five extra hours onto their shift.
This week, on more than one day, there will be no ambulance cover for West Waterford and just one ambulance on duty for Waterford.
In West Waterford, the nearest ambulance on duty will be in Youghal.
Recruitment Campaign
Cllr McGuinness believes a wide reaching recruitment campaign is necessary to tackle the problem.
"We need to have reform across the NAS to make it an attractive prospect, to make sure that workers are able to do their jobs, that they're equipped to do their jobs, that they're not ending their shifts exhausted and being expected to turn up for work a number of hours later, and that we can have rosters filled," he said.
The Waterford Councillor says that the government's "inaction on addressing the staffing crisis" has resulted in this lack of cover.
He described it as "shocking and scary."
Following a review of the service, the government accepted that the number of ambulance staff needs to be doubled.
