Paul Connaughton (Galway East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am grateful for the opportunity to speak on this motion. There is no doubt, following the recent "Prime Time" programme, that there is a heightened level of concern and worry over the ambulance service. Even if we were to go down the route of taking on new recruits and supplying more ambulances, it would take time. The question is how we can move the service on in the short term over the next six to 12 months. I have spoken to paramedics on the ground and while they would all like extra resources, they understand that there would be a time delay.

They would also like to see some form of education of the people so that they would understand what the emergency service actually does. I have been contacted by a number of paramedics who said that there is still a certain element of the population who see the emergency service as a taxi service to the hospital. In one case, an individual was in the waiting room of an accident and emergency department in a hospital. He saw ambulances coming in and out and noted that patients were being brought straight in and did not have to wait. He got it into his head that he would be seen quicker if he was in an ambulance. He left the accident and emergency department, went home and called an ambulance. That was an absolute waste of that ambulance's time. Some GPs, but by no means all, who do not want to take a chance or risk with a patient will ring an ambulance. That is also a waste of an ambulance's time, particularly if the situation is not life threatening. People must remember that our paramedics are very highly skilled and trained. The first line of care does not start at the door of the hospital - it starts when the person is met by the paramedic. That is the level of training and skill that paramedics have. They are not simply there to pick up people on the side of the road, put a blanket over them and bring them to hospital. People have to understand more about what our emergency services do.

We would like to see more resources going into this area and I call on the Minister to do everything he can on the embargo on staff and so forth in the long term. However, it is important to remember that the job these people do is so highly specialised that getting additional staff is not going to happen overnight. We have heard a lot about the dynamic deployment of staff, which is all well and good but it is more suited to the bigger towns and cities. In County Galway and rural Ireland, that is not so simple. Response times of eight, ten or 12 minutes are just not going to happen. We must accept the fact that it will not happen in the more remote areas. If an ambulance gets to someone within eight minutes but the person dies, is that a success? If an ambulance gets there within nine minutes and the person survives, is that a success? While we are all hell bent on targets tonight, have we actually considered what is best for the patient and what happens to him or her?

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