Emer Currie (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I raise the work of physician-staffed helicopter emergency medical services as opposed to paramedic-led emergency care. A lot of our focus is on having access to air or road ambulances which primarily aim to get patients to hospitals and emergency departments in a timely manner. However, in other countries, they bring the hospital to the scene of the emergency, whether that is at the roadside, in a home, on a farm or in a workplace.

The UK, including Northern Ireland, and other European countries, dispatch helicopters, which are staffed by specially trained doctors, to the sites of serious incidents like road traffic collisions or where there has been serious trauma, such as a knife or gunshot wound or a workplace injury. Northern Ireland has had this service in place since 2017. A review of the first five years of the service in Wales found that 63% of patients received pre-hospital care that would not have been available from a standard ambulance crew; the number of patients dying from blunt trauma injuries was 37% lower than it would have been if they had been attended by an ambulance service only; and medical intervention was, on average, between 29 and 41 minutes faster than a standard 999 response.

Life-saving treatment can be provided by physicians that paramedics and medical technicians cannot provide, such as surgery, emergency anaesthetic, blood transfusion and the management of airways which can alleviate the impact of trauma and prevent brain injury. Just 6% of treatments occurred pre-hospital in Ireland last year. I ask that the Minister of Health, Deputy Donnelly, as a matter of urgency, meet an Irish consultant expert group of helicopter emergency medical service doctors who are working abroad and have practical and cost-efficient recommendations on how to bring this life-saving service to Ireland and maybe save 300 lives per year. There is an opportunity to look at an all-island solution as well in relation to North-South co-operation.