Ambulance crews hit out at ‘brutal’ conditions at UHG base

Galway City Tribune – Ambulance crews have been stuck in a base at UHG “where you can’t swing a cat” with unsealed windows and holes in the walls for nearly two years.

Space is so tight in what is known as the old fever building at University Hospital Galway that crew members have to move in the middle of their lunch to allow others to pass to the fridge in the kitchen.

With the heat ‘at full blast’ all year round, members are too cold in the winter and too hot in the summer due to the lack of proper insulation in the unit.

Members believe that a Health & Safety report condemned the building years ago but management have failed to produce it when requested to do so by staff.

In late 2017, crews were moved to the fever building from a temporary base in Merlin Park due to an infestation of rats. That prefab has since been reopened, but only accommodates one full-time crew.

On one day last week, crews from four emergency ambulances, three intermediate care vehicles and a mobile intensive care vehicle used the base, forcing 15 staff into the building alongside four office staff.
This is a preview only. To read the rest of this article, see this week’s Galway City Tribune. Buy a digital edition of this week’s paper here, or download the app for Android or iPhone.