Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

My attention has been drawn to a report in the Donegal Democrat of Monday, 26 November. This referred to a situation where a distraught mother had to drive her unconscious child to hospital while a paramedic tended to the child in the back seat of the car. If this was an isolated incident, it might not have been raised in this way, but I am told there are other reported instances where ambulances have been told only one paramedic was available to both drive and tend. With the child needing to be attended to and brought to Letterkenny General Hospital, the paramedic could not drive the ambulance. The situation is serious and I am drawing it to the Minister's attention because there is a fault line. That is not to question the role of individual ambulance drivers and-or paramedics but certainly it is to question the decision making of those who oversee the service or who have issued governance rules to those entrusted with that oversight.

We were told by the article, and inquiries I have made on the back of it, that the paramedic in this instance sought additional support through the channels he would report to and people were available with the necessary skills, other paramedics and ambulances drivers, but permission to engage those available professionally trained personnel was refused. This is a serious matter and was of significant concern to the paramedic concerned and to his fellow professionals in the ambulance service in Donegal. I ask the Minster what steps he will take to assure the people of Donegal that a situation such as that described in the Donegal Democrat article will not reoccur.

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