Michael Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to this timely and important debate. We have witnessed the fanfare relating to the reforms of the ambulance service and we have been informed that the latter has been hugely improved. I have grave concerns with regard to the service, particularly in the context of how it operates in rural communities. The Duhallow area where I reside is now served by an ambulance shared between Millstreet and Killarney. Anyone who is familiar with the geography of the region will be aware that the distances involved are quite large. Prior to the introduction of the shared service, another ambulance had already been removed from the Duhallow area and replaced with a rapid response vehicle. Individuals and families unfortunate enough to have been obliged to depend on the service were frustrated by the amount of time they were obliged to wait for the ambulance or rapid response vehicle to arrive. This matter was recently the subject of a debate on the local radio station.

One of the people administering or working within the service texted in. Obviously, he could not give his name because of the position he held. He stated categorically that he was seriously frustrated, that morale was decidedly low and that they were challenged in every which way. Let us consider the geography of it. Let us suppose an ambulance picks up a patient in the Duhallow region, Millstreet, Kanturk or Newmarket and then travels to Cork, which is approximately one hour away. The paramedics must stay with the patient until he is admitted or whatever and they are there all day. This means the entire western Duhallow region and east Kerry is without an ambulance for the duration. There is a major need to address this.

We met representatives of the HSE when they were discussing taking one ambulance out of the region. They gave us various glowing statistics and figures relating to what would happen in future and suggested that the control unit would know the level of oil in the engines of the ambulances and the pressure of the tyres and so forth. This has proved not to be the case in recent times and ambulances have broken down at various stages. These cases have been well documented in the media, they are in the public domain and I have no wish to go into them because I have no wish to infringe on the families involved or their privacy. Evidence exists to show that the service, as reconfigured, is not working. There is a serious need for a review of the whole situation to prevent any serious incidents arising. Specifically, in the case of my region, it is not acceptable to take an ambulance out of what we would call north Cork but what is now being banded by the HSE as north Cork-east Kerry, a great raft of countryside. It is not acceptable and it will not work. I imagine if this continues many cases will be highlighted in the media in respect of people waiting. In certain cases people have had to wait for one hour, an hour and a half or two hours.

The accident and emergency service has been taken out of Mallow General Hospital and since then Cork has become the port of call. I was in an ambulance after a relative of mine was involved in a road traffic accident. The ambulance leaving the road traffic accident was going to Cork but midway en routehad to divert to Mallow because the patient, an uncle of mine, was in serious danger. Thankfully, he got to Mallow and was able to be resuscitated before he was moved on to Cork. There is a serious issue in this regard. I speak from deep experience in respect of having to wait for ambulances for over one hour. This was the position before the reconfiguration. I shudder to think what it will be like in future. This is relevant not simply because the matter was highlighted on "Prime Time". Many of us are hearing about it daily in our constituency offices. This is one of the most pressing issues that must be dealt with. What is being rolled out is not for the better.

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