Frank Feighan (Sligo-Leitrim, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Murnane O’Connor for raising the issue of replacing the current ambulance base, which is located at the Carlow health services complex at St. Dympna’s Hospital, Carlow town.

The National Ambulance Service is the statutory pre-hospital emergency and intermediate care provider for the State and it seeks to serve the needs of patients and the public as part of an integrated health system, through the provision of high quality, safe and patient-centred services. Carlow ambulance base is an integral part of the ambulance service and has two emergency ambulances on duty at any one time. The base is supported by NAS resources from surrounding ambulance stations, including Baltinglass, Athy, Kilkenny, Portlaoise and Enniscorthy. Dynamic deployment of available resources operates on an area and national basis, rather than a county or geographical boundary basis, to ensure optimum resource use as the nearest appropriate resource is mobilised to the location of the incident. The priority of dynamic deployment is patient health and welfare in the context of service delivery, which means that resources cannot be confined by county boundaries, barriers or borders.

The National Ambulance Service operates a comprehensive safety management system across all of its premises across the South and continues to work collaboratively with staff and HSE estates and external providers to ensure that any concerns or issues that occur are dealt with as quickly as possible. Given the work entailed and the timeline to move from identification and assessment of a suitable alternative site to the completion of works and building handover, remedial and refurbishment works at the existing station have been carried out to address shortcomings in relation to health and safety requirements. Remedial works to the value of approximately €50,000 were carried out at Carlow ambulance base in 2020. These works addressed requirements to ensure the ambulance base was a safe place of work and included a list of maintenance-type work to doors, walls, floor covering and minor leaks, with full certification of electrical and fire safety systems.

In 2021 the National Ambulance Service completed a detailed prioritisation assessment for all ambulance stations across the country. The NAS is working with the HSE in planning a future replacement for the current facility.

The HSE has identified Kelvin Grove as a possible suitable site and is currently procuring a design team for another project on the Kelvin Grove site. The design team will prepare a development control plan for the site to include two other facilities including the proposed ambulance base. When this site appraisal is completed, the HSE will be in a position to develop a capital submission for a new ambulance base. Capital funding for the project will be determined in accordance with the overall prioritisation planning for all ambulance stations that require replacement, major refurbishment or expansion. I thank Deputy Murnane O'Connor for raising this issue. She has been to the forefront in raising the ambulance service in her region. I look forward to trying to get her a satisfactory reply.

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