Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail)

On 999 calls, people answering the calls are call answering civil servants and are not medically trained or trained in policing. It has long been bemoaned that they do not have a level of expertise. They are taking a call at face value, yet calls are triaged. How does that work in practice?

I will give an anonymised example that illustrates the difficulties of the system. A parent in west Clare called an ambulance and was informed that it would be there in 20 minutes. The person's son continued to deteriorate in their arms and they called 999 again to notify the service of the worsening condition of the child. The person was advised that the ambulance would be a further 49 minutes, a wait time of over 70 minutes despite communicating the urgency of the condition. During this time, the child's breathing was slowing down. The initial call was from a parent seeking an ambulance and it then became apparent to the call centre that the ambulance was delayed and the child was deteriorating. That could happen anywhere in the country.

Would it not be standard or good practice for a call centre to call the parent back and advise them of the delay? Why should a person making a call, who has a child who is slumped in their arms and struggling to breathe, have to make a second and third phone call? Would not be good practice to advise the parent that the ambulance has been delayed and has had to be diverted to another more serious incident and advise the parent to go to a neighbour's house or drive straight to hospital? Why does that not happen?