Posted online: Jul 1st, 2009

Inishowen could be able to avail of an air ambulance by the end of the year, the “Inish Times” can reveal.

Ireland is the only country within the EU that does not have a dedicated air ambulance service. However, a charity-funded group is set to provide air cover with a North West based helicopter  and medical crew covering Inishowen.

Speaking to the “Inish Times” he was quick to disassociate the AIAA with the Nothern Ireland-based Ireland Ambulance charity which has raised £700,000 in public donations, but spent £500,000 on wages and costs.

Mr. Rowe said: “We have not connection at all with the Ireland Air Ambulance – I don’t wish to and I don’t want to.”

Mr. Rowe said he had no doubt the service would save lives. 

He said: “Inishowen is a bit like Kerry. We have so many ambulances and once they go up the road to Dublin they are gone for several hours. It is the same here in Inishowen where they can be gone for up to seven or eight hours and there is no replacement for the ambulances and the helicopter will replace them. It will not take away the work of the road ambulance people, it will enhance them.”

Mr. Rowe revealed the death of a close friend led to him forming the AIAA.

He said: “Six years ago a very good friend of mine was doing me a favour when he was hit by another car on the road between Tralee and Killarney. It took an hour and a half to get him to Tralee Hospital and a further seven hours and ten minutes to get to Dublin. He died twice on the way. I was not happy and I have always said if we had had a helicopter as an air ambulance it would have saved his life.”

The development has been welcomed by Buncrana Councillor Joe Doherty who said the All Ireland Air Ambulance service in the North West would augment the existing emergency services and help to save lives.

He added: “The fact the helicopter will be able to sit down on remote locations on land close to emergency incidents means patients can be transferred with speed to a waiting ambulance or a hospital thus dramatically reducing the timescale involved.”

Cllr. Doherty added: “I was very impressed by the case put forward for the service by Mr. Rowe. I think it will work and work very well.”

Cllr. said he would bring the issue up at the next meeting at Buncrana Town Council at which he would be proposing the council members meet wih Mr. Rowe.

Meanwhile, the AIAA group have placed fundraising collection boxes at numerous locations throughout the peninsula and Mr. Rowe said anyone who wished to organise a fundraising event was very welcome to do so – contact 066 7118654 or 08979 090939.

The All Ireland Air Ambulance (AIAA) expects to put its first helicopter in the air in the south of the country by September next with another in the North West before the end of the year. Organisers say the project aims to raise Ä85,000 a month to run the service, which is based on a community-funded system operating in Cornwall in England for over 20 years.

The air ambulance will attend road traffic accidents and medical emergencies where rapid transport to hospital is needed or where remote location makes access impossible for conventional ambulances.

Founder and chairperson of the group’s trustees, Derek Rowe, from Kerry, visited Inishowen this week to raise awareness of the fundraising campaign.