Michael McCarthy (Cork South West, Labour)

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for selecting this issue for debate this afternoon. I also thank the Minister for being here in person to take it.

A curtailment of the ambulance service in west Cork is being planned by the HSE. It is introducing plans to remove ambulance cover from both Skibbereen and Castletownbere between 8 p.m. and 8 a.m. and to replace the service with two rapid response cars. Neither car will have patient carrying capability and will be manned by a single paramedic. The effect of this action will be that a population of more than 82,000 people in the wider west Cork area will be serviced by just two ambulances, one in Bantry and one in Clonakilty, from 8 p.m. until 8 a.m. seven days a week. To say this is causing considerable stress is an understatement, not least given the overstretched ambulance service that already exists in the area. There is a strongly held belief that this action will endanger lives.

There is one ambulance for every 37,000 people in the country. The withdrawal of 24 hour cover in Skibbereen and Castletownbere means this figure will rise in west Cork to one ambulance for every 57,000 in County Cork. It is unacceptable in the 21st century that such a situation could prevail. I appeal to the Minister to reverse the decision.

I acknowledge the second phase of the proposal from the HSE will restore the 24 hour ambulance cover in Castletownbere. While I welcome that move, it negates the reason for removing cover from the area in the first place. I question the logic of restoring cover in Castletownbere but not in Skibbereen, which is the second busiest, and occasionally the busiest, 999 ambulance station in west Cork, second only to Clonakilty. If Skibbereen loses its 24 hour cover, it effectively means the vast area from Rosscarbery west to Mizen Head will not have a service after 8 p.m. seven days a week. This will have an adverse impact on people in Leap, Glandore, Union Hall, Castletownsend, Skibbereen, Baltimore, the islands, Ballydehob, Schull, Goleen and Crookhaven.

Another key issue to consider in the context of this proposal is that the SouthDoc service in Skibbereen closes at 11 p.m., meaning that if a GP is needed after hours, a doctor would have to come from Bantry, 30 kilometres away. The HSE has a target time of ten minutes as a maximum time for treating a trauma casualty on-site before transporting him to hospital. The withdrawal of 24 hour cover from Skibbereen will mean that in respect of advance paramedics or ambulance after 8 p.m. or doctors after 11 p.m., this target time will not be met.

Heaping more pressure on the situation are future plans by the HSE to shut the minor injuries assessment unit in Bantry Hospital at night. All trauma patients will have to be taken to Cork city during these hours, leaving a minimum three hour absence of ambulance cover from the west Cork area. In the recent Roscommon case, the closure of the casualty department was offset by the provision of extra ambulance cover. The opposite will happen in west Cork, where ambulances will be taken out of service while the minor injury unit in Bantry is closed. There are honest fears about this and I appeal to the Minister to look at this sympathetically.

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