irish medic

Over here things are different. The only city which works a combined fire/ems agency would be Dublin. In Dublin, Dublin City Fire & Rescue provide 11 ambulances under contract to the HSE but they only run 999 (American 911) calls. They don't do Dr's calls or Patient Transport Service (Clinic runs). The rest of the country of Ireland is covered by the HSE National Ambulance Service which we cover all calls. Fire & Rescue around the rest of the country are just that. It bugs me that even here you'll see pictures of MVC's in the papers with a load of fire fighters around the vehicles involved & during media questioning they state what the've done to treat the pt. Not one word said about the ambulance service. Lo & behold in the paper you'll see the statement "patient was taken to hospital". What about all the treatment we done prior to & during transport. I think that we as in EMS are our own worst enemies as in we do not have the PR machine that F&R have. We don't have managers/officers educated enough to deal with the media. It can be off putting when you & your partner arrive at a scene to be met by 16 FF with the gungho attitude but if every service treated each other with respect then maybe this might stop. I do not nor have any interest in training as a FF. I joined EMS as a profession. We take care of the medical side of things with pt's simple as that. F&R are trained in a total different profession to me, I respect them for that, the least I expect in return is that when I arrive at a scene & F&R are there before me, that they in turn respect my training. I do believe in what Aussiephil has stated though & that is EMS needs to be a standalone profession.

Welcome to the madness !!!!!

Tamaith. Apologies for the late reply. I know plenty of americans who have come over here & worked with us. Some like it, some don't. All I can suggest is that you make contact with PHECC. See if the process works for you & where you would fit in on the PHECC register. Depending on your training etc, you might find out that you would qualify as an Irish Paramedic (see my earlier post for distinction between the two grades here). This is the minimum level needed to crew an Emergency Frontline Ambulance (responding to 911calls) If not you should be able to find work with one of the privates. I can let you know who the good ones are. You don't want to work for the rubbish ones. On a final note, please be aware that we operate a mixture between the Amercian & UK ems models. Whilst it's not perfect, we are progressing so you might find a difference in the way we do things but the craic is mighty, guiness is good & we are very friendly

Tam, Can I ask are you an EMT-B, EMT-I or EMT-P?. Irish ems had only really taken off over the last 5 yrs. Up to then the only level in the service was EMT-B (not like your EMT-B more like your EMT-I). We are progressing at a fast pace, with new skills & meds coming online every year. There is private ambulance companies in Ireland but they generally do not run emergency calls (they might be needed to fill the odd shift around the country but that's about it), they generally do intra hospital transfers & patient transport services. We on the other hand are the Emergency Service for the whole country (except in Dublin where Dublin City Fire & Rescue also provide an Emergency Ambulance Service under contract to the HSE National Ambulance Service). Depending on where you are stationed dictates your call volume. Some rural stations might only do 500 calls a year but would have increased transportation times (generally one hour) to the nearest facility. Dublin, Cork & Limerick would have the greatest call volume (not necessarily in the order I've listed). Starting pay for a student paramedic in Ireland is approx 42,708 dollars a yr plus Cardiac allowance & shift allowance. This is the minimum level needed to work an emergency ambulance in Ireland (would fall between your EMT-B & EMT-I levels). You could always email Phecc in relation to your problem with the reference If there's any other info you need feel free to ask Keep safe on the streets

Limerick would be one of the busiest ambulance stations outside of Dublin. Approx 35,000 emergency calls last year. For my american brethren this figure would not include Dr's calls or Patient Transport work which we also have to do. We work this amount of calls with 13 crews of 2. 3 ambulances on days, 2 ambulances on nights. Cheers for the welcome, the rebel county is slang for Cork. As the other poster stated, www.phecc.ie Currently there is two standards in Ireland. 1) Paramedic which would be somewhere in between the American EMT-B & EMT-I levels This takes two yrs to complete 2) Advanced Paramedic which would be the equivalent of your Paramedic level You have to be 5yrs post qualified as a Paramedic before you can go onto the AP programme which entails another fulltime year of clinical, practical & theory placements. Cheers for the welcome Firemedic

Thanks for the welcome guys. Irlemt, orginally from the rebel county, but working limerick

Just wanted to say hi from Ireland. Looking forward to making new friends on EMT city