Catherine Byrne (Dublin South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to address the House on behalf of Minister Harris regarding the ambulance service in Leitrim. The national ambulance service operates from two locations in Leitrim, namely Carrick-on-Shannon and Manorhamilton. However, services in Leitrim are not exclusively provided by staff based at these Leitrim stations. This is because the national ambulance service is increasingly moving to a policy of dynamic deployment. This ensures that vehicles are strategically located where they are most likely to be required, rather than located at a particular station. In line with this policy, and using the advanced medical priority dispatch system to triage calls, Leitrim is supported by other national ambulance service ambulance bases in Boyle, Sligo, Loughglynn, Cavan, Roscommon and Longford. Several developments have been made by the national ambulance service in order to address the issue of response times and ambulance cover in Leitrim.

I know too that in Border counties the national ambulance service works closely with the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service in order to provide a more responsive service for patients.

The capacity review, published in 2016, identifies particular difficulties serving rural areas such as Leitrim. The capacity review indicated that the only practical way to improve first response times in rural areas is through voluntary community first responder, CFR, schemes. The national ambulance service continues to work with local CFR groups across the region to enhance services.

The national ambulance service has undergone a very significant process of modernisation in recent years and there have been important service innovations and developments. This ambulance reform programme is taking place against the backdrop of the HIQA review of ambulance services, which was published in late 2014, and the national ambulance service capacity review.

The National Emergency Operations Centre has been established, where emergency calls are received and emergency resources are dispatched. The national ambulance service has visibility of all available paramedic resources and vehicles in real time, ensuring that the closest available resource is dispatched to an emergency. In addition, the national ambulance service has developed the intermediate care service to provide lower acuity hospital transfers, which frees up emergency ambulances for the more urgent calls.

A permanent emergency aeromedical support service has also been established to provide a more timely response to persons in rural communities.

During recent years additional investment has been directed towards the national ambulance service. This year, an additional sum of €10.7 million has been made available, which includes €2.75 million to fund new developments. New developments include the development of alternative pathways to care with the Hear and Treat clinical hub that went live in the national emergency operations centre in March of this year. This diverts some lower acuity patients to alternative care pathways and frees up some emergency capacity. It is anticipated that such initiatives will help to improve response times around the country, including in the Leitrim area. I will come back to the Deputy on other issues he raised.

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