Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I accept the information delivered by the HSE on the time the call was made and the time the ambulance arrived. I do not dispute this information but having to wait 16 minutes when one is 1 km away from a hospital, which one can almost see, while a number of gardaí are at the scene trying to revive somebody knowing they do not have the equipment which would be in an ambulance does not give a person the best possible chance. I am using this tragic case to question whether this could happen again.

There seems to have been a failure with regard to the back-up. I wish to know about the back-up provided in general and not just in this particular case. It is all very well to speak about dynamic rostering but if extra ambulance cover for Naas needs to be provided from the far side of Dublin or Athy then the system is failing. How is this modelled? Must we wait and see whether tragic outcomes arise and then state it is a failure? This is the wrong way to go about it. I would like reassurance on how the process works with regard to the deployment of people to cover sick leave because this will happen.

The ambulance service in Maynooth has been taken off each Thursday and instead a paramedic on a motorbike is deployed. This is better than nothing but it is not the same level of cover and it may be inappropriate cover in some situations. The ambulance service is a critical part of the health service and if we do not get it right it does not matter how high-tech the hospital is because if one does not arrive at the hospital one does not have a chance. I ask the Minister of State to come back to me on the process for deploying people where the back-up service ceases to be available.

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