Lisa Chambers (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I want to raise directly with the Minister the issue pertaining to the constituency of Mayo. Back in 2014, one of the ambulance bases there was determined by HIQA to be an ambulance black spot. Since then we have had a crew appointed to that base in Mulranny, but unfortunately what we have seen happening is that that crew very often does not make it to the Mulranny base. It is pulled back into Castlebar, Ballina or Belmullet, and so the area is not getting the service that we think we are getting. This was back in 2014, three years ago. The situation has not improved.

The Minister has touched on the HIQA response times. We should have a first responder on the scene in just under eight minutes, and for a vehicle carrying a patient they should be there within 20 minutes, or just under 20 minutes. Geographically the Minister is correct. It is not physically possible, with Belmullet, Castlebar and Ballina, and including Mulranny, to reach parts of our county in those times even if one leaves within minutes.

On the turnaround time at the hospital, from speaking to staff locally at Mayo University Hospital the feedback I am getting is that when an ambulance arrives at the hospital they very often have nowhere to put the patient. There is no trolley or bed to transfer the patient to, so they cannot actually get the patient off the bed that has to go back into the ambulance, which remarkable. These are ambulances that could be deployed to another area.

I have raised the issue of the massaging of figures relating to response times for many years. If something happens in Galway a Castlebar ambulance will often be called when a Galway ambulance is not available in the knowledge that that ambulance will never make it to Galway. It was, however, dispatched on time. The ambulance may get half way there and then sent back when the Galway ambulance becomes available, thereby massaging the figures that the Minister is supposed to use to develop policy. These are very serious, ongoing issues. It is happening all over the country.

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