Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. The concept of a national ambulance service has been developed for a number of years. I am told and have checked that dynamic deployment allows staff in the HSE's national emergency operations centre in Tallaght to see all available resources and prioritise allocation to the higher acuity calls that require an immediate emergency response. Judgment calls are made through a system as to which is the most severe incident and ambulances are then deployed.

That model represents international best practice. It has been highlighted by HIQA as a way to improve response time and national ambulance service performance generally. That said, we hear repeated concerns from Deputies and public representatives locally about situations that have emerged in their localities. It is always important to review how a system and service operates. In 2021, the service received an additional €10 million. For 2022, an additional €8.3 million on top of that is being allocated to modernise and build up the capacity of the service.

There is an acknowledgement in the service that lower acuity calls - in other words, calls deemed to be less serious - have longer waiting times but in the sad case the Deputy has articulated, it seems the woman did not meet those metrics on the face of it, but actually was in a much worse condition.

The service has provided huge backup and been involved in the Covid response. I thank them for that; they have performed heroically throughout the pandemic. Redeployment of approximately 45 paramedics from Covid-19-related work back to emergency ambulance duties is under way. A further 80 paramedics are due to graduate from the National Ambulance Service College this quarter and 200 student paramedics are at different stages of the programme.

There is a strong focus on getting the additional staff in place but the Deputy's point is about a wider review of the idea of the national service with national redeployment, as opposed to having people located in different stations around the country. The professionals and experts in the field of emergency care are of the view that the current service is better in terms of outcomes but the experiences the Deputy has outlined deserve to be put before the National Ambulance Service team and the HSE with a view to feeding into and getting a better service and better outcomes for people locally.

There is just one further point. The community first responders scheme is important as well, and that needs to be grown again. It was stepped down a bit due to Covid, but that also needs to be reactivated, strengthened and expanded.

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