Kate O'Connell (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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If I may, I wish to pick up on something that Professor Collins said. He spoke about indemnity, which is often mentioned when roles are being expanded. If we cast our minds back to the expansion of the vaccination programme into community pharmacies, the argument was made that people would be having anaphylactic reactions to flu vaccines left, right and centre. People asked what the pharmacists would do when that happened. When I was training, the chance of that happening was one in 1 million and now it is one in 2 million. I had many arguments with medic members of my family as to how we would manage and we all got through it fine. My understanding is that nobody has "croaked it" on a pharmacy floor from having a flu vaccine administered. In that context, the expansion of roles should be governed by the undergraduate course and the issue of indemnity dealt with by the governing and regulatory bodies. I would not like to see the issue of indemnity preventing any expansion of roles.

There has been a call from some quarters for an increase in the availability of defibrillator machines in various settings.

I scanned a study last weekend which said this was not good value for money. A nurse who featured on "The Late Late Show" or "The Ray D'Arcy Show" recently outlined how she gave her husband CPR for half an hour and he survived. In Denmark, children are taught first aid, recognition of the symptoms of stroke and chest compressions. Nobody dies on the street anymore there because most people are able to keep those with heart failure going until the paramedics arrive. It might be popular to suggest defibrillators should be put in every village in the country but they must be used correctly. Perhaps Dr. McDonald could elaborate on what would happen if a defibrillator was used for somebody having a stroke and on the inappropriate use of such devices.