Robbie Gallagher (Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State is very welcome to the Chamber. Unfortunately, I am again raising the issue of ambulance delays which, sadly, has become a perennial issue. Ambulance and emergency responses are critical to the survival of many patients. Therefore, initiatives to solve the problem, or at the very least alleviate it, are crucial. In recent years communities have fundraised to purchase defibrillators and people in those communities have spent many hours training themselves to use them. I am sure the Minister of State will join me in offering our great gratitude to them for the work they do. They are doing all they can, but ultimately many emergencies require professional first responders to arrive quickly and deliver patients to the appropriate hospital setting urgently.

The Minister of State can imagine the concern caused when it took five hours and 14 minutes for an ambulance to arrive to the location of an emergency call in Monaghan last year. The Minister of State can imagine the scene for the patient concerned and for those around him. That experience caused stress and trauma. This wait time for an ambulance is not the worst. It represents the 15th longest wait in the country during 2022. The longest wait in Cavan was for four hours and 59 minutes. A total of 155 people waited more than an hour for an ambulance in Cavan and Monaghan during 2022. The HSE states that it aims to respond to life-threatening heart and respiratory calls within 19 minutes in 80% of cases. Other life-threatening emergencies should be responded to within the same timeframe in 50% of cases. However, according to a recent freedom of information request, the longest wait was seven hours and ten minutes in Waterford. A total of 233 response times were more than three hours.

Everyone knows that lives will be lost if drastic changes are not made to improve the response times of the National Ambulance Service, NAS. Figures have also revealed that the percentage of calls over life-threatening heart and respiratory matters responded to within the target time of 19 minutes has fallen from 75% in December 2019 to 65% for the same period in 2022. Ambulance response times for call-outs over life-threatening issues have failed to meet their targets, with almost 100 patients waiting more than four hours last year. Other life-threatening emergencies should be responded to within the timeframe in 50% of cases, as stated by HIQA. However this figure has also plummeted, from 49% four years ago to 30% in December 2020.

In almost 6,200 emergency call-outs last year, it took an hour for an ambulance to respond to calls over life-threatening issues. The data I am outlining clearly show we have a serious problem with the response times of ambulances. There appears to be a gap between demand and capacity. It is high time this issue was dealt with. Lives are being put at risk. It is clearly an issue whereby we need more vehicles and people to man them. I look forward to the response the Minister of State will outline to the House this morning on how we go about tackling this issue before more lives are lost and put in danger.

Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I thank Senator Gallagher for tabling this very important issue regarding the National Ambulance Service and resourcing in the north east. I will take it on behalf of the Minister for Health, Deputy Donnelly.

As Members of this House are aware, our ambulance service has experienced a significant and unprecedented rise in patient demand in the past two years. Last year a record total of 390,000 calls were received. This surpassed the previous record of more than 366,000 set in 2021. Of these totals, the National Ambulance Service’s north Leinster region, which covers the north east of the country, received a record total of 125,136 calls compared with 117,862 for 2021. This represents a rise of more than 6%. The rise in activity is even more significant for the number of emergency calls activated involving the deployment of an emergency resource. In 2022, more than 57,000 calls in the National Ambulance Service’s north Leinster region were activated. This compares with more than 49,500 in 2021 and represents a year-on-year rise in activity of 15%.

I can confirm to the House that the NAS is putting in place further resources in the north east. Twelve new service development paramedic posts became part of the roster system in the Cavan and Monaghan area at the end of the fourth quarter of 2022. I am also advised that a further ten new development positions, approved in 2022 for the north east, will become part of the roster system by the end of the first quarter of 2023. A total of €6.8 million was allocated to the NAS as part of the 2022-2023 HSE winter plan. Part of this investment is being used to provide for further development of such care pathways. Specifically, capacity is being strengthened in the NAS national emergency operations centre clinical hub hear and treat pathway. This is where patient calls are clinically triaged and some lower acuity patients are referred to a more appropriate treatment pathway to avoid inappropriate ambulance dispatches.

Funding under the winter plan is also being used to develop further the pathfinder model of care. This was successfully piloted by the NAS in conjunction with Beaumont Hospital to respond to and treat older people in their homes where clinically appropriate. This initiative was expanded at the end of October 2022 to three new sites in Tallaght, Limerick and Waterford. It is planned to roll this out to further locations during 2023.

Robbie Gallagher (Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for his response.I welcome the fact that new positions are being created which is vitally important. It is also vitally important that citizens in communities the length and breadth of the country have confidence in our health service, particularly our ambulance service, so that in the event of an accident happening, or somebody being taken unwell, that, based on experience, they have the confidence to know it will come out and be there in sufficient time to address their clinical needs. That is completely vital and important.

I sincerely hope the measures the Minister of State talked about will go some way to alleviating that problem so that I will not back here in 12 months' time with the same problem. I thank the Minister of State for his response and I sincerely look forward to a positive development in the servicing of the National Ambulance Service.

Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I thank Senator Gallagher for his very important Commencement matter. As I pointed out, more than €200 million of an unprecedented level of investment was approved in the past year for the National Ambulance Service. This provided for front-line paramedic capacity building, as I outlined in my opening statement, as well as a provision for 27,000 hours through the private ambulance service in order to meet demand. In the response from the senior Minister, I pointed out the increase in services and there is unprecedented investment. I will pass on to the Minister for Health the concerns of the Senator in respect of the north-east region and how important a timely response from the National Ambulance Service is.

Victor Boyhan (Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Burke. That concludes the first five Commencement matters, which he was scheduled to take. I thank him for the giving of his time to come here to deal with what was a number of varied topics, which we appreciate.