Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)

On behalf of the Minister for Health who, unfortunately, is unable to take this important issue, I thank Deputy Kirk for allowing me to address it. I very much agree with Deputy Kirk, who has correctly highlighted the importance of having an ambulance service in place, not only in the north east but throughout the country, which is reliable and fit for purpose in terms of the requirements of a modern Irish health service.

The national ambulance service, NAS, operates nine ambulance stations across the north-east region. These provide emergency response services which include telephone assistance, assessment, treatment and stabilisation at the scene of an incident, and ongoing treatment during transport to the nearest appropriate medical facility.

Emergency service staffing includes trained control and dispatch staff and highly qualified paramedics and advanced paramedics. An emergency ambulance crew consists of two clinical staff, who will be paramedics, advanced paramedics or a combination of these, depending on the nature of the call out, availability and rostering. In addition to the regional resources of the NAS, a memorandum of understanding is in place with the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service. This provides for operational day-to-day co-operation and resource sharing in responding to 999 emergency calls on both sides of the Border.

The emergency ambulance service provided by the NAS is not a static one. The NAS deploys its resources in a dynamic manner, which means ambulance services are provided on an area and regional basis, as opposed to a local basis. Ambulances and paramedic staff are no longer restricted to particular locations, stations or areas, as was the case under the old health board service arrangement. Resources are also deployed across the area according to predictive analysis, so they are not necessarily in a station but where activity patterns indicate they are most likely to be required during a shift. Accordingly, the emergency resources for a particular location include all available vehicles and personnel within the wider area.

The dynamic deployment of emergency resources ensures the nearest appropriate resource is mobilised to the location of any incident. In the north-east area, this is achieved by the dynamic dispatch of resources from surrounding stations in the first instance. In Drogheda, for example, the emergency resource immediately available for deployment in response to a 999 call includes all the surrounding stations.

In responding to 999 calls, ambulance dispatchers prioritise resources according to clinical status. All life-threatening conditions - cardiac, respiratory and other - receive first priority and the closest appropriate resource will be dispatched to these incidents. The Deputy will appreciate what this means, namely, on occasion, an ambulance responding to a lower priority call will be diverted en route to respond to a clinically more urgent incident. However, all efforts are made to then secure resources in the wider area to respond to the lower priority call.

The Deputy will note that approximately 60% of all 999 calls made to the NAS are neither life threatening nor potentially life threatening. Approximately 10% of all 999 calls to the NAS are inappropriate for an emergency ambulance. These statistics are consistent with international experience and evidence.

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