Dr. Noreen Lineen-Curtis:

I will address the question of transport of patients on the island. We are blessed that we have two amazing nurses on the island. They are fantastic and they are my eyes and ears when I am not there. They are absolutely super. If one of the nurses says “I think you better come out,” I may as well start running out the door because it will be something urgent. They are absolutely fabulous and I could not enough about them. We are also very lucky to have fantastic evacuation services off the island in terms of the lifeboat and helicopter. They are always available and have an absolutely super response. But that takes a bit of time. In the meantime, if someone is injured on the island, one has to get them to a safe place. Many of the injuries happen outdoors. The e-bikes that the Deputy mentioned are the bane of our lives in the summer time. More and more people are on them, sometimes without helmets, and we get a lot of injuries such as fractured hips, skulls etc. At the moment we do not have any adequate transportation to get those patients from where they are injured to the helipad or to the health centre where they can be cared for until the services arrive to take them off the island. That is a big problem at the moment. I have been banging on about this for the last ten years but the vehicle out there now is just a small two-seater van that the nurse uses on her daily visits. There is no space to put a patient in the back. When there is an injury, and we have done this over again, we go out, we get the patient off, packaged up and ready to go and then we have to figure out who has the closest Hiace van and get them to hoke out all their tools and get the patient in. That is often in the dark, where we are sitting in the back of the van with a phone light on so we can see and monitor the patient and then we get to the helipad or clinic. It is really undignified and we can do better in this day and age. On the other small island I look after, Inishbiggle, one of the patients actually bought a big van in order that it might be used for this purpose because again, we had several incidents. We were trying to get someone into the back of a Jeep, which was the biggest vehicle available. It was a very ill patient. One would be hanging onto the back of the seat and the back of the stretcher so that the patient does not slip out the back because the boot does not close. We can do better in this day and age and we should. Our patients deserve better. The vehicle on Clare Island needs to be changed. It is not an ambulance that we need; that is too big and too high and it would not be used often enough to remain roadworthy. We need a vehicle such as something in a Jeep-style where we can put a stretcher into the back to care for a patient and get them out of the elements, get them to where they need to go and put services in as well. Very often when the lifeboat crew comes out to help with an incident they are fantastic at the heavy lifting or manning the helipad so to bring them from the harbour when they get there to the incident is important. Similarly when the fire service or gardaí or whoever is needed, we have to get them to the incident and, more importantly, to get the patient transported back to the helipad or the health centre. It is hugely important and has been for years. I would love to see that happen before I retire.