Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I have a few questions. I will focus on the National Ambulance Service initiatives, including deployment of rapid handover teams. Will the HSE expand on what is involved in that? My concern arises from the fact that, at one stage two weeks ago, there were 11 ambulances outside Tallaght hospital. Ten were Dublin Fire Brigade ambulances. I know this because a number of constituents contacted me who were trying to enter the accident and emergency department. Deputy Kenny spoke about the conditions in the accident and emergency and so on. One patient had pains in his chest and a suspected heart attack. He was released that night and ended up calling another ambulance the next morning which brought him back again. He spent three days on a chair, not on a trolley. He has had cancer in both kidneys and a fractured lower vertebra. He was on a chair going through that. A woman beside him ended up lying on the floor that night. They both have VHI private insurance. Some of the challenges the families spoke about related to communication. When a loved one is in hospital, no one can go in with them under the current Covid-19 regulations, so no one is with them. When people are seriously ill in hospital, we are relying on them, if they are well enough, to answer the phone. I give that as one example.

The same weekend a family from Wicklow whose mother had fractured her hip waited three or four hours for an ambulance. A woman contacted me this week whose mother had a heart attack and subsequently died. She waited four hours, lying on the floor of their apartment. I am giving examples, but there are probably many and people listening at home probably have similar personal stories. I will not get into those individual cases.

Rapid turnover is important because the longer those ambulances are sitting outside Tallaght or any other hospital - a number was also outside St. Vincent's hospital the same weekend - the longer the response time will be. Will the witnesses expand on what is needed? Are more staff needed? Will they let people at home know?