Pat Gallagher (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)

I thank the Deputy for raising the matter. I am pleased to have the opportunity to respond on behalf of my colleague, the Minister for Health and Children.

It is regrettable that the mothers referred to by the Deputy should have suffered undue distress, particularly as the birth of a child should take place in a safe, secure environment. I have been advised that while, thankfully, such incidents are rare, the HSE will examine the circumstances which culminated in the unfortunate events. The HSE apologises unreservedly to the three mothers. Both the Minister and myself hope that the events leading up to the birth of these babies have not taken from the joy which the birth of a child brings to parents.

A number of objectives were identified in the Strategic Review of the Ambulance Service 2001, which were to lead to an improvement in response times and, ultimately, more effective responses to emergency calls. In recent years, substantial additional funds have been invested to develop the ambulance service along the lines identified in the strategic review and this work will continue into the future. Since the publication of the review, as part of the revised organisational framework developed under the Health Service Executive, a national ambulance service has been established to replace the eight ambulance services that operated under the former health board structure.

The HSE has advised that, within the greater mid-western area, resources are deployed from nine ambulance stations based on the policy to dispatch the nearest available ambulance to respond to emergency calls. While the location of the ambulance station may be important, it is not the only factor, as resources and skill mix can be tactically deployed based on priority and demand. For example, the ambulance may be diverted, while en route to a routine call, to an emergency call.

County Clare is 3438 sq. km. and has a total population of 110,000. The county is serviced by ambulance stations in Ennis, Ennistymon, Kilrush and Scarriff with 24-hour services in all but Scarriff, which provides 19 hours of cover per day. Part of County Clare is also serviced by Limerick ambulance station. Since the inception of the HSE's national ambulance service, there has been significant investment in ambulance services in terms of estate facilities, education, training, fleet and equipment. To ensure optimum use of the Government's investment, one of the critical objectives of the service is to develop models of pre-hospital emergency care that will meet existing and future demands.

In conjunction with the Pre-Hospital Emergency Care Council, PHECC, a statutory agency that has responsibility for clinical education and training standards as well as response time standards, the national ambulance service is researching the demand for emergency services and associated ambulance services in the context of the developing the optimum deployment of resources. This research is being undertaken by way of a national spatial analysis study. The outcome of this study will be used for the development of pre-hospital emergency services and, in particular, for tactical deployment of resources and future planning of services in terms of models of care, skill mix of staff, ambulance response points and fleet configuration. This study will form the bedrock for pre-hospital emergency care development in the future. It will then be possible to ensure that available resources are targeted to the best advantage in terms of response times.

The Deputy raised a number of specific questions and, as requested, I will ask the HSE's parliamentary affairs division to correspond with him in this regard.

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