Mr. Martin Dunne:

In the north east area comprising Louth, Meath, Cavan and Monaghan, there are ten ambulance stations located in Navan, Dunshaughlin, Ardee, Drogheda, Dundalk, Castleblayney, Monaghan town, Virginia, Cavan town and Trim. With the exception of Trim in County Meath, all of the stations are 24 hour stations, staffed around the clock. The station at Trim works on a 12-hour, five-day week basis. It is what we call an emergency dispatch point and calls are responded to by a rapid response vehicle crewed by an advance paramedic in the area to give immediate help to patients in that area.

One must take into account that under the control room centralisation programme which is ongoing, we have developed call taker and dispatcher roles. We used to have a singular point of contact, known as an emergency medical controller who did both jobs. We have split that job into two specific roles and both are licensed under the Pre-Hospital Emergency Care Council, PHECC, to carry out their role and function within the control centre. When one dials 999 or 112 now, one speaks to a dedicated call taker in any of the national control centres who is trained, licensed and registered under the PHECC. The call is then moved automatically to a dispatcher who is also licensed and trained under the PHECC and he or she deals solely with dispatching vehicles. The operating procedure is that in any case the closest emergency ambulance is dispatched. While these two sections of the control room work in isolation somewhat, they also work together because they have full view of everything that is going on in the area at any given time. They are also supported now by call taker supervisors, dispatch supervisors and the control manager on a 24/7 basis. If there are any issues ongoing, they are immediately escalated to that level within the control centre.