Vol. 434 No. 4
164 Mr. R. Bruton asked the Minister for Health if his attention has been drawn to the fact that all the heart ambulances for Dublin city are located in James's Street, Dublin 8, with none on the north-side, even though the Mater Hospital, Dublin 7, is the main cardiac centre; and if he will take action to ensure the location of a heart ambulance on the northside.
The provision of ambulance services in the Eastern Health Board area is a matter for the board in the first instance. The Eastern Health Board introduced mobile coronary care ambulances in 1979 following receipt of Department of Health approval.
Initially, the service was introduced in the James's Street ambulance base from late 1979 and all ambulance personnel were afforded special training in the recognition of cardiac disorders, the use of portable defibrillator-monitors. In addition, ambulance personnel carried special cardiac drugs for use by medical practitioners.
All ambulance vehicles operating from the James's Street and Loughlinstown ambulance bases are now adapted to enable them to carry the cardiac equipment. Under the present operational arrangements, all ambulances on duty at both Eastern Health Board bases at any given time are cardiac equipped.
As the Deputy is already aware, my Department, together with the health boards, is currently undertaking a major review of the ambulance services nationally. The review group is looking at the nature and level of service required. One of the main area for review is the provision of cardiac ambulance services.
The review is ongoing and it is expected that the report will be presented to me later this year. It would be intended that the recommendations of the review group would be taken into account by the health boards when considering any future developments in this area.
