Mark Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Before commencing I welcome the research staff of St. Vincent's Hospital who work with Senator John Crown. It is apt that my question is on the ambulance service, although a long way from St. Vincent's Hospital.

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. We miss him since he left. The matter I wish to raise concerns the people who will be affected by the proposed cut in ambulance services in Kenmare, Killarney and Cahirciveen. In reality it means people are going to die. That is the stark reality.

The ambulance service in Kenmare is 24/7. What we are hearing through the HSE grapevine is that the 24/7 service in Kenmare, Cahirciveen and Killarney will be reduced to an ambulance car at weekends and after 8 p.m. What that means is that if a person suffers a stroke or a heart attack or there is a serious incident requiring an ambulance in Kenmare, Cahirciveen or Killarney area he or she will get a reduced service. In an example given to me by experts in the field, it was claimed that if an accident occurs in Lauragh at a weekend and the ambulance has to come from Killarney, it would take up to an hour. First, an ambulance car would go to the area which, as described to somebody in the profession, is the equivalent of sending a fireman with a fire extinguisher to a blazing house fire when what is needed is the fire brigade. If the ambulance is required to transport a person to hospital in Cork or Tralee, it would then be called from Killarney. That ambulance could be out on call which means the ambulance from Tralee would have to be called. Tralee is an hour at speed from Kenmare and from Lauragh an hour and 20 minutes. At this stage, as I am sure the good doctor would know, the outcome would be very poor if one was left sitting on the side of a road two hours after the accident took place.

The reason I ask the question is that we have been told the service will be downgraded and that the reconfiguration will happen in the next few months. Public meetings are being planned in Kenmare to prevent this happening. We know that once the ambulance is gone it will not return. Ultimately, people will die. We have carried out an analysis of the ambulance service during the past 12 months which showed that outcomes would have been far worse for people in the community if they had not been transported to hospital by ambulance within an hour of an accident, stroke or heart attack. They were on the operating table within an hour and a half of the event happening. If the ambulance service is withdrawn and downgraded it will take two or three hours to get the person to hospital. As the Minister is aware what will happen is that the person who suffers a heart attack or stroke will occupy a hospital bed and instead of having a stent inserted and recovering in a day or a week, will need rehabilitation and physiotherapy and will cost the taxpayer more. We all know prevention is better than cure. By giving people the attention they need as quickly as possible, the taxpayer will ultimately save money. We are going to be penny wise and pound foolish. We have been told that we are at the tail end of the process, that money had to be allocated to other constituencies to beef up services in west Cork where a campaign was run, which the Leas-Chathaoirleach will be well aware of it, having been involved in it. The HSE will try to make the savings in south Kerry and ultimately lives will be lost and there will be worse outcomes as a result of the proposed and threatened downgrading of the ambulance service.