Michael McNamara (Clare, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank Sinn Féin for tabling the motion, which highlights the completely unacceptable wait times for ambulances and the fact that not alone are targets being missed in many cases, but more of them are being missed than was the case previously. In December 2019, ambulances reached 69% of cases of cardiac and respiratory arrest within the target time of 19 minutes. That had fallen to 59% by December 2022. In other emergency cases, it fell from 54% to 43%, which is less than half. That is simply unacceptable. There are a number of reasons for it, none of which can be blamed on the excellent staff of the ambulance service and the paramedics who are doing their very best in a chaotic system.

Centralisation works badly in most services but it has had catastrophic effects in the ambulance service. Ambulances from County Clare are being sent all over the place. Last year, an ambulance was sent from Ennis to Enniskillen, resulting in there being no ambulance in north Clare. I have driven from Ennis to Enniskillen. You would not be driving up to Enniskillen and coming back down to work in Ennis thereafter. If it is not working, it simply needs to reviewed, and I believe it is not working, despite the best of intentions.

I reiterate the point raised by Deputy Harkin and others in respect of the paramedic training course at UL. Notwithstanding that these people have been trained and could provide an excellent service, they cannot get into the NAS thereafter, largely because of a typically Irish battle of egos, it seems. That must be stopped.

We were led to believe that the protocol under which ambulances would go to Ennis hospital would improve matters. Instead of ambulances queueing outside UHL for patients to be admitted, they would go to Ennis hospital, where there would be a faster drop-off. In the first six weeks of the protocol, however, only 29 ambulances went to Ennis hospital, so that is not a panacea either. The situation needs to be reviewed.

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