Imelda Munster (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

We are all aware of the enormous pressures on our health service. Covid laid bare the enormous deficits. We are reaching crisis point again in respect of hospital capacity, including ICU capacity. The National Ambulance Service, like many parts of the health service, is in crisis. Staff are reporting that morale is at an all-time low. Staff are completely burnt out. Paramedics often have to travel over 200 km to a call-out due to disparities in ambulance coverage in different parts of the country. Staff have reported having to work for over 15 hours per day, often as a result of having to travel hundreds of kilometres towards the ends of their shifts. It is little wonder that healthcare workers are not being enticed to stay here or come here to work.

The healthcare system is dysfunctional and affecting the health and lives of those who work in it. This is bad news for patients. I have heard from many in my constituency who are upset over the times for which their loved ones have been left waiting for an ambulance. Last year a gravely ill 95-year-old woman was left waiting for three and a half hours. During the summer an ambulance was called for a GAA player who appeared to be seriously injured on a playing field. He was a five-minute drive from Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital but it was decided that he should not be moved given his injuries. He waited an hour and 40 minutes for an ambulance. It turned out that the ambulance came from Tallaght as there was none available locally.

The National Ambulance Service is missing its response targets for call-outs in life-threatening circumstances. We are aware that there are elderly and vulnerable people waiting hours for ambulances. We need to support those working in the National Ambulance Service. The best way we can do so is by increasing capacity in the service so staff will not be so overworked and overstretched and so we will not be overly reliant on private ambulances. We need to identify where additional funding is required, phase out private services, fill vacancies, increase the number of staff and expand the ambulance fleet to meet demand. We need to do all these for the sake of patients across the State and for paramedics and healthcare workers, who have given so much to us in the past year and a half, but also long before that.

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