Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I am responding to this matter on behalf of my colleague, the Minister for Health, Deputy James Reilly. I expect that everyone agrees the Minister has spent considerable time today responding to questions. I thank the Senator for raising this matter and for the opportunity to clarify the position. It is important that it be clarified.

The HSE's national ambulance service, NAS, provides pre-hospital emergency care and emergency and some non-emergency patient transport. Before the NAS was established, each health board had its own ambulance service, with little co-ordination across board boundaries or national leadership on pre-hospital care. Supported by the Department of Health, the Pre-Hospital Emergency Care Council and HIQA, the NAS is providing national management of ambulance services. In particular, the following developments are continuing: ongoing reduction to two ambulance control centres; increased deployment of advanced paramedics, who provide more complex on-site care; modernisation of communications and control infrastructure; and the development of new performance indicators.

Where necessary, emergency cover is supported by advanced paramedics in rapid-response vehicles and by resources dynamically deployed from adjacent stations. A new intermediate care service is addressing routine inter-hospital transfers and releasing ambulances for emergency work, and the national aeromedical co-ordination centre organises aeromedical support, including inter-hospital transfers, transplant transport to the United Kingdom and the emergency aeromedical service, EMS, based in Athlone. The effects of these changes are improved efficiency and increased resource availability across the service.

In deploying emergency resources, the national ambulance service, NAS, operates under the Pre-Hospital Emergency Care Council, PHECC, EMS priority dispatch standard. The PHECC standard identifies the appropriate resource for emergency calls and promotes practice in line with Health Information and Quality Authority, HIQA, national standards for safer, better health care. These set out the principles for timely and clinically appropriate responses.

Ambulance crews are available to respond to emergencies, emergency transfers and lower acuity calls. Ambulance control centres are responsible for strategically deploying emergency ambulances to maintain emergency cover, and for dispatching the nearest appropriate emergency resource to a call. Emergency ambulances from all stations across Donegal are used in a dynamic manner to maintain emergency cover and to respond to calls as required. Ambulance stations across the county and adjacent counties support one another, and the nearest available ambulance responds to an emergency call regardless of where it is based.

Key to the Senator's issue, the NAS has informed the Department that, at 7.31 p.m. on the day in question, Ballyshannon control centre received a call relating to an incident in Letterkenny. The on-duty ambulance crews in Letterkenny were responding to other calls. In line with established procedures, an emergency ambulance was tasked from Carndonagh. This ambulance arrived at 7.55 p.m., 24 minutes after the call was received. Meanwhile, an off-duty HSE paramedic was at the scene from 7.50 p.m., some 19 minutes after the call, and had informed Ballyshannon centre of her presence. The ambulance left the scene with the patient at 8.10 p.m. and arrived at the hospital at 8.13 p.m. I am satisfied the nearest available and appropriate emergency resource was deployed and that established procedures were followed.

The NAS has undergone significant change to ensure quality, safety and value for money. As with other clinical areas, this process is ongoing as clinical needs and standards develop. These developments are in the best interests of patients and are a key part of the Government's work to ensure high quality emergency care. We all aim to have emergency calls responded to as quickly as possible. I do not mean to take away from this particular incident, but it is clear the most appropriate response was provided in the quickest possible time.