Latest news with #NAS
RTÉ News
2 days ago
- Health
- RTÉ News
Call to add unregistered AEDs to national database
The National Ambulance Service (NAS) has said there are thousands of defibrillators across the country not currently registered on its database, which could potentially delay a person accessing one of the life-saving devices in a medical emergency. An Automated External Defibrillator (AED) is a sophisticated, yet easy-to-use, portable device that can, if necessary, deliver an electrical shock to help a person's heart re-establish a normal rhythm. The devices are typically stored in wall-mounted cabinets that are located in public places that have a high volume of footfall. Such cabinets often require a code for the device to be accessed. The NAS maintains a national registry of AED locations that is used in real-time by emergency dispatchers to direct people to the life-saving devices. However, the NAS has said many defibrillators across the country remain unregistered or inaccessible, limiting their potential to help people during a medical emergency. Of the more than 9,000 AEDs known to be in Ireland through consultations with the suppliers of the devices, almost half of this number are not registered. This means that around 4,500 AEDs across the country may not be able to be located or accessed in an emergency. As a result, all individuals, businesses, sports clubs and community groups who own an AED are being urged to register their device with the NAS to help save more lives during cardiac emergencies. Community Engagement Officer with the NAS for the Dublin and North East area, Liam Stewart has said early CPR and the rapid use of a defibrillator can mean the difference between life and death. "One of the real advantages of the defibrillator is that it dramatically improves the person's chance of survival if they have a sudden cardiac arrest in the community. "We have over 4,500 defibrillators in our database at the moment that we can direct callers to if they ring 999 or 112 and are talking to the ambulance service. "However, from speaking to suppliers, we know there is many, many more thousands of defibrillators across the country that we don't know about," he said. To encourage more uptake, the NAS introduced a registration form on its website that can be submitted with the location details for an AED. Since 2022, the service has doubled the number of defibrillators on its database from around 2,000 to over 4,500. Last year, the NAS also appointed a dedicated co-ordinator to manage the AED database for Ireland, who has undertaken a review of defibrillator submissions and how best to integrate this data into its dispatch system based on best practice from other jurisdictions. Clíodhna Ward from Co Monaghan has been a member of the Order of Malta since she was ten years old. After learning about the low number of AEDs registered on the NAS database, the 17-year-old student at Our Lady's Secondary School in Castleblayney said she had to do something about it. Her campaign, entitled "30 Seconds of Your Time Could Give Someone 30 More Years of Theirs", aims to try and increase AED registrations across Ireland. "I initially started my research back in September in my locality in Monaghan. I found out how many AEDs were registered and then compared this to how many actually were there, and the results were shocking. "As a first aider myself, I know how important an AED is and the importance of getting it to the location as quick as possible. There are so many AEDs out there, like you look at GAA clubs and how much fundraising they have done to get one. [They are located] at rugby clubs, even in libraries. Anywhere you go, there is now an AED. "But if you went say down the country on your holidays to Kerry, I'm from Monaghan and I wouldn't know where the nearest AED is in Kerry and that's the biggest problem. "If you phone 999, they should be fit to give you the nearest registered AED. But if it's not registered, it won't come up on their system, which leads people to go 10-15 minutes down the road, when, in reality, an AED could be three minutes away from you," Clíodhna said. Ms Ward went on to say that registering an AED is usually the easiest part of the process, given the time and money often required to acquire one of the life-saving devices in the first place. "My campaign is only the start of something that really urgently needs to be done to get people to register their AEDs all across the country. When you think about it, the amount of fundraising and hard work that goes into getting an AED in the community, it is just getting that final step to get people to register their AED with the National Ambulance Service," she said. Monaghan Rugby Club is one of those organisations which recently raised the money needed to have an AED installed in a cabinet on the exterior wall of the clubhouse. Stephen McCabe, who is the chair of the club's minis group for younger players, said it is also important to check in with the NAS after the device has been registered. "We had two incidents within a very short time, which highlighted the registration had not gone live with the National Ambulance Service call centre. "One here in the club where a spectator got into difficulty and the AED had to be sent for. When we contacted the emergency services, they weren't able to supply the code for the box to the person who was on the phone. "And then approximately 12 days later, there was a local incident where a person was sent for an AED as well. "Initially, they were sent to a decommissioned one. And that woman was actually aware of the advertising we put out that there was a new AED here at the club, so she came down here, but they weren't able to provide her with the code for the lockbox. "Luckily enough, there were no deaths or serious outcomes from either of those two incidents," he said. Mr McCabe went on to say that the issue was immediately resolved after the club highlighted it with the NAS. "In fairness, we got back on to the co-ordinator and she was able to get to the bottom of it with the IT section, and it has been rectified now," he added. In a statement, the NAS said: "Every registration of an AED by an owner, such as a community group, private business, or sports club, is manually reviewed by the administration team to ensure clarity and accuracy of instructions. "It does not automatically go live on the national system until a validation process has been completed. Owners are then informed that their AED is now live and are sent a sheet with advice on how to regularly check the device. "In addition, work has been undertaken, in conjunction with community first responders and voluntary aid groups, to verify the readiness of defibrillators in the community and the accuracy of our database. "Where devices are found to be 'not ready to use', they are removed from our database. Where possible, the owner is notified and given advice. These efforts are being used to inform how we can best continue to ensure defibrillators are accessible and ready to use. "If a defibrillator is no longer available, the NAS is reliant on the person who originally submitted the registration to inform us to remove the device. Typically, devices are removed from our system within 48 hours, once we are notified". The Castleblayney Community First Responders are notified by the NAS about cardiac arrests that occur in their area. Martina Murray, the co-ordinator of the group, said that familiarising yourself with where your local AED is located can also prove vital. "For every minute the defibrillator is not used, a person's chance of survival will drop. So, knowing where your local one is, if it is two minutes away, three minutes away, it will buy them time before we arrive on scene as well. "And often that is the case, where people have run to their local GAA club, their local church, or chapel where the device has been registered and that has made a big difference to some people's lives, so it is a brilliant initiative that Clíodhna has come up with. Mr Stewart from the NAS advised people to go to their website and will out an AED registration form. "Then, we know about the defibrillator, we can verify it, we can make sure that we have the details correct. And then, if there is an emergency call in the area and a defibrillator is required, we can assign those people who make the call to that defibrillator," he added.
Irish Daily Mirror
4 days ago
- Irish Daily Mirror
I tested Ugreen NASync DXP2800: a home server is better than paying for storage
If, like me, you are tired of paying monthly fees for cloud storage and music streaming, you may want to consider a home server such as Ugreen NASync DXP2800. This clever machine is a home NAS (Network Attached Storage) server that provides a centralised and reliable solution for storing, sharing, and protecting your files and data within your home network. Unlike cloud services such as Google Drive or Dropbox, where your files live on someone else's servers, a NAS stores everything locally to give you full control without the fees. READ MORE: Insta360 launches Antigravity A1 drone - bringing 360-degree video to the skies for the first time READ MORE: I tested OnePlus Pad 3 for two months to see if an Android tablet could finally replace my laptop A NAS delivers benefits such as easy file sharing, data back-up and recovery along with enhanced data security. Additionally, the machine can be used for streaming media such as photos, videos and music, running personal servers and even building a home surveillance system. Ugreen is completely new to the NAS (Network Attached Storage) market, and has already launched six different devices that cover different use cases, from the casual home user to the more professional sector. Ugreen NASync DXP2800 in everyday use I already use a NAS made by the well established brand Synology and after a couple of months I have found that the Ugreen NASync DXP2800 is an excellent machine with similar capabilities and software features. It's a metal and plastic unit that you connect directly to your router and it's got a built-in fan to keep your 3.5in SATA drives cool and a magnetic dust cover to protect the fan. The NAS works with both SSD and HDD drives. It is so quiet in operation that I never notice it running. There are plenty of connectivity options including two Thunderbolt 4 ports, HDMI, five USB-C and USB-A ports along with a 2.5Gbps Ethernet port. The brains of the device is a fast and capable Intel N100 12th generation N-series chip coupled with 8GB of superfast RAM. You access and navigate your server's control panel and app library on your computer or laptop by using a slick web browser interface similar to the system employed by Synology. It all works intuitively and the UI is zippy and responsive. I used two 4TB SATA hard drives and set them up with a RAID 1 configuration where both drives are mirrored so if one hard drive becomes corrupt or dies, then I have a full back-up on the other drive ready to go. Installing the drives and setting the software up was simple and took about a half an hour in total. The DXP2800 supports drives up to 24TB, incidentally. Ugreen NASync DXP2800 is an entry-level two-bay NAS system (Image: Ugreen) Remember, to be ultra-safe, you should always back up the back-up and store that third copy of your data and files at a different location. All the key basic functions you would expect from a NAS are supported out of the box. Apps available from the Ugreen app store include multimedia support for music, video and photos, a virtual machine manager, file manager and virus scanner. Regular firmware and software upgrades can be applied manually or automatically. Setting up shared folders, managing permissions and configuring storage pools is simple. You can easily create folders for individual users, grant remote access or set up automatic sync with third party cloud services. Data transfer speeds were consistently fast, even when I upload hi-res images from my Sony A7R5 camera. It is noticeably quicker than uploading to third party cloud servers. I've uploaded vast libraries while engaged in multitasking, browsing files and streaming music, and the system has been able to handle it all with ease. The photos app on the NAS automatically scans and tags your photos using AI just like the apps from Google and Apple. I've been also using the Ugreen NASync DXP2800 to store my sizable audio collection, a mix of Hi-Res, FLAC, AIFF and WAV files with some MP3 files. The Ugreen music app automatically organised my entire library by album, genre and artist. Ugreen NASync DXP2800 verdict Ugreen NASync DXP2800 enables you to access all of your data from anywhere in the world from any type of computer or mobile device. For someone like me, with huge photo and music libraries, I can save close to €40 per month in cloud storage and streaming fees, meaning that the NAS and hard drives will quickly pay for themselves. With that in mind, Ugreen NASync DXP2800 is an easy to recommend fast and user-friendly entry-level solution that delivers a decent price-performance ratio. Pricing and availability Ugreen NASync DXP2800 costs €296.99 (reduced from €349.99) from Ugreen. Storage drives not included. Free shipping. For comparison, Synology 2-Bay NAS DS225+ costs€374 on Amazon. Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest news from the Irish Mirror direct to your inbox: Sign up here.
Sunday World
4 days ago
- Health
- Sunday World
Woman waited hours for ambulance with critically ill sister who later died
'NOT GOOD ENOUGH' | Her sister has a heart issue and had collapsed, shortly after returning from hospital The late Julia O'Brien (centre right) from Arklow with her sisters Ellen, Annie and Mary. Photo: Michael Kelly Despite having a dedicated ambulance, prolonged wait times in Arklow have been a long-standing source of frustration for residents, many of whom have pointed to delays disembarking patients at hospitals, and the National Ambulance Service's (NAS) centralised system, which sees the nearest available ambulance dispatched within 90 seconds of the call. Among those left in disbelief by the waiting times is Arklow resident Mary Byrne. She was hosting her sister, Julia O'Brien, who had just been released from the hospital, when, on July 13, Julia collapsed as she was being brought upstairs to go to bed. Contacting 999 immediately, Mary received instructions to bring Julia to the bedroom and roll her on her side, before she waited on tenterhooks for an ambulance that seemed like it would never arrive. 'My sister had just come home from the hospital on the Friday, and she'd been in for an assessment for a heart problem for three days,' Mary recalled. The late Julia O'Brien (centre right) from Arklow with her sisters Ellen, Annie and Mary. Photo: Michael Kelly News in 90 Seconds - August 14th 'She had come up to stay with me for a few days, which was just as well, because she could've been lying on her own floor. 'We were bringing her up the stairs to bed, and all of a sudden, the two legs went from under her. I rang 999 and told them that she didn't just fall, and that she had a heart condition, and they gave me all the instructions of what to do, putting her on her side and all that. 'Somewhere along the line, we were forgotten about. I rang just before 10.50pm, and about two hours later, still no ambulance, but someone from 999 came back to me to ask if everything was okay, and said they were doing their best to get us an ambulance. 'It came at 2.15am, three and a half hours after we first called, which is just wrong – so wrong,' she continued. 'When the ambulance men came in, I asked them if they had been busy, and they said they were down in Wexford and had only recently received the call. After seeing the shape my sister was in, they also said Julia never should've been released from the hospital. 'So, she went back into the hospital on July 13 and never came out. She died on July 20. 'I don't think, even if they had come in an hour, she would've been saved. She wasn't well, but the fact that she was lying there for three and a half hours, that's the thing that my sisters and I can't get over or get our heads around.' Moved by the messages of support she has received from the community, Mary explained how her anger drove her to tell her story, and that through highlighting the issue, she hopes changes can be made so no one else has to endure the traumatic experience. 'I was and am just so mad, I felt like I had to say something to somebody,' Mary said. 'It helps to talk, and I wanted to tell the story, because nothing will change otherwise. When it was posted online, I couldn't believe the number of people sympathising and telling their own stories about the ambulance service. Read more 'Listen, I understand how the system works. If the Arklow ambulance is up in Dublin, another one has to come up from Gorey or wherever. 'But what I can't understand is a three and a half hour wait for a woman with a heart condition who has collapsed. Something needs to be done, whether that's more treatments being available locally, in the primary care centre, or more ambulances on the road. 'We can make a load of excuses and a lot of reasons why there are delays, but it just feels like, especially for older people in Ireland today, nobody gives a damn about us.' Responding to Mary's story, members of the Arklow community discussed the additional strain that will be placed on the service when the town's population explodes, before calling on their elected TDs to address a service already struggling to manage the seaside town's existing residents. 'We have a base here, and most of the time, people here have to wait for long periods of time. Also, another point is we have a huge new primary care centre, and people still are being sent to the hospitals for basic scans, X-rays, etc,' one commenter wrote. 'It's not good enough. This town has waited far too long.' Another commented: 'There is an ambulance, but once it goes out on a call, we have to wait for one from another area. It's been going on for years. 'I've called ambulances and we've had one from Wexford, Wicklow, Loughlinstown and Tallaght, and this can work vice versa with our ambulance. 'In fairness to the crews, they work hard, but because everything is centralised now, they are being sent all over the place. If they get stuck at a hospital with a patient, we may wait until there is one diverted from somewhere else.' Asked for a breakdown of the Arklow ambulance service, and how much the severity of the emergency and the Arklow ambulance being occupied (at or en route to hospital) impacts wait times, a HSE spokesperson said they cannot comment on individual cases. Shedding some light on the overburdened service, they noted that calls for emergency service support via the 999 service have increased by over 25pc since 2019, with the NAS responding to approximately 430,000 emergency calls in 2024, and 108,915 in the first quarter of 2025. 'The HSE National Service Plan (NSP) measures effectiveness through the use of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs),' they added. 'NSP 2024 targets included 75pc of 999 PURPLE calls (life-threatening cardiac or respiratory arrest) should be met within 19 minutes, and 45pc of 999 RED (life-threatening illness or injury, other than cardiac or respiratory arrest) calls should be met within 19 minutes.' After hearing about Mary and Julia's distressing incident, Wicklow-Wexford TD Brian Brennan broached the broader issues with the ambulance service, saying: 'Firstly, I commend the ambulance staff, paramedics, advanced paramedics, all first responders and those on the front line, but there is a critical issue with the system, and it must be addressed as a matter of urgency. 'The current ambulance service is not fit for purpose in Arklow and the south east. As it stands, Arklow and Gorey have only one operating ambulance each at any given time to serve a population of over 50,000 people. 'If these ambulances are out on call, cover is requested from as far away as Bray and Waterford. Our local ambulances also provide cover outside of their areas, sometimes being called away as far as Meath and Maynooth. 'I have raised this in Leinster House as I believe that this system is absolutely not fit for purpose and has the dedicated front-line staff chasing their tails and is leading to unacceptable waiting times for people in their most vulnerable time of need.'
Sunday World
5 days ago
- Health
- Sunday World
Woman forced to wait hours for an ambulance with critically ill sister
'NOT GOOD ENOUGH' | Her sister has a heart issue and had collapsed, shortly after returning from hospital The late Julia O'Brien (centre right) from Arklow with her sisters Ellen, Annie and Mary. Photo: Michael Kelly Despite having a dedicated ambulance, prolonged wait times in Arklow have been a long-standing source of frustration for residents, many of whom have pointed to delays disembarking patients at hospitals, and the National Ambulance Service's (NAS) centralised system, which sees the nearest available ambulance dispatched within 90 seconds of the call. Among those left in disbelief by the waiting times is Arklow resident Mary Byrne. She was hosting her sister, Julia O'Brien, who had just been released from the hospital, when, on July 13, Julia collapsed as she was being brought upstairs to go to bed. Contacting 999 immediately, Mary received instructions to bring Julia to the bedroom and roll her on her side, before she waited on tenterhooks for an ambulance that seemed like it would never arrive. 'My sister had just come home from the hospital on the Friday, and she'd been in for an assessment for a heart problem for three days,' Mary recalled. The late Julia O'Brien (centre right) from Arklow with her sisters Ellen, Annie and Mary. Photo: Michael Kelly News in 90 Seconds - August 14th 'She had come up to stay with me for a few days, which was just as well, because she could've been lying on her own floor. 'We were bringing her up the stairs to bed, and all of a sudden, the two legs went from under her. I rang 999 and told them that she didn't just fall, and that she had a heart condition, and they gave me all the instructions of what to do, putting her on her side and all that. 'Somewhere along the line, we were forgotten about. I rang just before 10.50pm, and about two hours later, still no ambulance, but someone from 999 came back to me to ask if everything was okay, and said they were doing their best to get us an ambulance. 'It came at 2.15am, three and a half hours after we first called, which is just wrong – so wrong,' she continued. 'When the ambulance men came in, I asked them if they had been busy, and they said they were down in Wexford and had only recently received the call. After seeing the shape my sister was in, they also said Julia never should've been released from the hospital. 'So, she went back into the hospital on July 13 and never came out. She died on July 20. 'I don't think, even if they had come in an hour, she would've been saved. She wasn't well, but the fact that she was lying there for three and a half hours, that's the thing that my sisters and I can't get over or get our heads around.' Moved by the messages of support she has received from the community, Mary explained how her anger drove her to tell her story, and that through highlighting the issue, she hopes changes can be made so no one else has to endure the traumatic experience. 'I was and am just so mad, I felt like I had to say something to somebody,' Mary said. 'It helps to talk, and I wanted to tell the story, because nothing will change otherwise. When it was posted online, I couldn't believe the number of people sympathising and telling their own stories about the ambulance service. Read more 'Listen, I understand how the system works. If the Arklow ambulance is up in Dublin, another one has to come up from Gorey or wherever. 'But what I can't understand is a three and a half hour wait for a woman with a heart condition who has collapsed. Something needs to be done, whether that's more treatments being available locally, in the primary care centre, or more ambulances on the road. 'We can make a load of excuses and a lot of reasons why there are delays, but it just feels like, especially for older people in Ireland today, nobody gives a damn about us.' Responding to Mary's story, members of the Arklow community discussed the additional strain that will be placed on the service when the town's population explodes, before calling on their elected TDs to address a service already struggling to manage the seaside town's existing residents. 'We have a base here, and most of the time, people here have to wait for long periods of time. Also, another point is we have a huge new primary care centre, and people still are being sent to the hospitals for basic scans, X-rays, etc,' one commenter wrote. 'It's not good enough. This town has waited far too long.' Another commented: 'There is an ambulance, but once it goes out on a call, we have to wait for one from another area. It's been going on for years. 'I've called ambulances and we've had one from Wexford, Wicklow, Loughlinstown and Tallaght, and this can work vice versa with our ambulance. 'In fairness to the crews, they work hard, but because everything is centralised now, they are being sent all over the place. If they get stuck at a hospital with a patient, we may wait until there is one diverted from somewhere else.' Asked for a breakdown of the Arklow ambulance service, and how much the severity of the emergency and the Arklow ambulance being occupied (at or en route to hospital) impacts wait times, a HSE spokesperson said they cannot comment on individual cases. Shedding some light on the overburdened service, they noted that calls for emergency service support via the 999 service have increased by over 25pc since 2019, with the NAS responding to approximately 430,000 emergency calls in 2024, and 108,915 in the first quarter of 2025. 'The HSE National Service Plan (NSP) measures effectiveness through the use of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs),' they added. 'NSP 2024 targets included 75pc of 999 PURPLE calls (life-threatening cardiac or respiratory arrest) should be met within 19 minutes, and 45pc of 999 RED (life-threatening illness or injury, other than cardiac or respiratory arrest) calls should be met within 19 minutes.' After hearing about Mary and Julia's distressing incident, Wicklow-Wexford TD Brian Brennan broached the broader issues with the ambulance service, saying: 'Firstly, I commend the ambulance staff, paramedics, advanced paramedics, all first responders and those on the front line, but there is a critical issue with the system, and it must be addressed as a matter of urgency. 'The current ambulance service is not fit for purpose in Arklow and the south east. As it stands, Arklow and Gorey have only one operating ambulance each at any given time to serve a population of over 50,000 people. 'If these ambulances are out on call, cover is requested from as far away as Bray and Waterford. Our local ambulances also provide cover outside of their areas, sometimes being called away as far as Meath and Maynooth. 'I have raised this in Leinster House as I believe that this system is absolutely not fit for purpose and has the dedicated front-line staff chasing their tails and is leading to unacceptable waiting times for people in their most vulnerable time of need.'
Forbes
11-08-2025
- Forbes
TerraMaster D1 SSD High-Speed Enclosure With Zero-Noise And Passive Cooling
Last month I wrote about the new F4 SSD Network Attached Storage from TerraMaster. This month, I'm reporting on the brand's new direct storage device in the form of the TerraMaster D1 SSD Plus enclosure for NVMe SSDs. The TerraMaster D1 SSD Plus is a USB4 enclosure designed for creative professionals, gamers and mobile office users who need high-speed portable SSD storage. Supporting transfer speeds up to 40Gbps and with highly efficient thermal performance, the new enclosure is suitable for 4K/8K video editing or can be used as a macOS boot drive and expansion storage for a Mac mini. The D1 SSD Plus takes 2280 M.2 NVMe SSDs such as Samsung 990 PRO or WD Black SN850X. It can handle SSDs up to 8TB capacity and the USB 40Gbps interface works with USB4, Thunderbolt 3/4/5 and USB-C interfaces with macOS, Windows, Linux and PS5s. The USB4 40Gb/s interface supports read speeds up to 3,853MB/s and write speeds up to 3,707MB/s. For example, the D1 SSD can transfer a 3GB video in around one second, making it a suitable choice for 4K/8K video editing as well as large-scale data transfers and running applications. Efficient Cooling and Zero-Noise Although SSDs can run cooler and are more efficient than mechanical hard drives, they still need efficient cooling. The D1 SSD Plus is manufactured from an aerospace-grade aluminum alloy with a massive cooling fins on each side of the enclosure for optimal thermal efficiency. Thanks to this massive heatsink, the D1 SSD Plus can maintain optimal temperatures without the need for a fan. By keeping the temperatures low, the enclosure prevents the SSD from suffering performance throttling or being damaged by overheating. Excessive temperatures can damage the NAND memory chips used in an SSD so having efficient passive cooling is essential for reliable performance. Because there's no fan inside the D1 SSD, it is totally silent in operation, which is important for use in a professional recording studio or anywhere else that demands complete silence. Aerospace Grade Aluminum With a case made from robust and aerospace-grade aluminum alloy, TerraMaster says the D1 SSD Plus is up to 300% stronger than standard metal. The case has a seamless, CNC-machined design featuring smooth edges and a high degree of precision. The sandblasted surface makes it a good match for used with both Macs and PCs. SSD activity is indicated on the D1 SSD by a micro-perforated LED indicator which makes it suitable for use in low-light areas such as a video edit suite. The enclosure makes it easy to instal an NVMe SSD which can be swapped out within two minutes suing nothing more than a screwdriver. On the base of the enclosure are anti-slip silicone footpads which reduce the chance of slippage on surfaces and helps protect the enclosure from drops and knocks. The D1 SSD also has a two-year global warranty and comes lifetime technical support. The D1 SSD Plus includes the TDAS Mobile app for iOS and Android systems, which provides one-tap backup of photos, videos and data. The free TPC Backupper software supports scheduled, incremental and differential backups on Windows 8/10/11, while Mac users can use macOS Time Machine for backing up their Mac. The TerraMaster D1 SSD Plus is now available through the TerraMaster official website and through authorized channels and Amazon. It's priced at $119.99 / £109 / €119,99 without any SSD and comes with a two-year global warranty as well as lifetime technical support.
