Robbie Gallagher (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State and thank him for his visit to the Holy Family school in Cootehill yesterday, which went down very well. Everyone enjoyed the occasion and we look forward to a new facility there sooner rather than later.

I raise the issue of ambulance delays, particularly in rural Ireland. One might ask what chance ambulance crews have if they do not know where they are going. How can they quickly and efficiently find their way to patients in rural locations specifically? Does the national ambulance strategy have a protocol on the matter in place? A number of incidents over the years have led local communities, especially in rural Ireland, to wonder how the service is directing its ambulances and how the crews are assisted in reaching an emergency once it has been called in to it. Two incidents last July involving the same unfortunate family in County Monaghan illustrate this point in starkest detail. A 44 year old husband and father suffered a cardiac arrest on 9 July in Ballybay town, but he had to wait one hour and 15 minutes for an ambulance to arrive at the scene. 999 was immediately called and CPR was carried out. A defibrillator was immediately brought to the scene and telephone contact was maintained with the emergency services throughout. A full hour after the initial emergency call and the commencement of CPR, a strong pulse was identified, but a further 15 minutes elapsed before the ambulance arrived, having travelled from Navan via a diversion through Dunshaughlin in County Meath. Despite the best efforts of all involved, 15 minutes later the man was pronounced dead in an ambulance on Main Street, Ballybay, before he could be transferred to Cavan General Hospital.

On Tuesday, 18 July, the late man's father, who was in failing health, required an ambulance due to a dangerously high temperature. At 2.32 a.m., his wife telephoned the doctor on call and outlined her husband's condition. She was put through to ambulance control, which informed her that an ambulance was in Shercock approximately seven miles away. She gave directions, the location's Eircode and so on, but no ambulance arrived. A full hour later, their son drove towards Shercock to bring the ambulance to the house, but encountering no ambulance, he returned to the house. Following a series of phone calls to the doctor on call, they discovered that the ambulance was sitting outside a local shop and totally lost, with no satnav or contact telephone numbers for the patient, resident or family after having travelled from Monaghan town. One hour and 25 minutes later, the ambulance arrived to a traumatised household. The gentleman was transferred to Cavan General Hospital and diagnosed with pneumonia.

There have been numerous incidents throughout the country of delays of this nature, including one in Dundalk recently where a young man bled to death after waiting more than 40 minutes for an ambulance.

HIQA has advised that best practice is to have a dynamic deployment of ambulances rather than a strategic placement of vehicles and for the nearest vehicle to attend the scene, and that this is what we are moving towards. In many areas, however, people are left with little ambulance cover, including in counties Monaghan, Laois and Sligo, an entire county that is only covered by two vehicles.

This is a serious issue and it must be addressed. When accident and emergency units in local hospitals were closed, including in Monaghan, we were promised a beefed up ambulance service. Unfortunately, that has not proven to be the case. Clearly, a lack of services and personnel is causing this problem. We cannot allow a situation like the one in Ballybay to happen again. We need clarity from the Department of Health on this point.