Jimmy Deenihan
Question:93 Mr. Deenihan asked the Minister for Health if he intends to make special funding available for the installation of cardiac equipment in ambulances in the Southern Health Board region.
Written Answers. - Ambulance Service Equipment.
The Deputy will be aware that, in November last, I launched the report of the Review Group on the Ambulance Service and announced a major programme to develop the country's ambulance service. The review group produced a very comprehensive list of recommendations covering all aspects of the service, including pre-hospital cardiac care. These recommendations provide the basis of Government policy for the development of the ambulance service.
At the launching of the report I stated that I intended to provide funds for the implementation of the recommendations of the report over the next five years. As the first step, £500,000 was immediately made available to health boards for the development of ambulance services and was targeted at improving ambulance infrastructure. As part of this process, £75,000 was made available to the Southern Health Board for improvements to equipment, communications and staff facilities. The Deputy will be interested to learn that the Southern Health Board has had in place a programme for the development of its cardiac ambulance service since November 1992. To date the board has equipped 18 of its emergency ambulances with defibrillators and it is planned to equip the remaining seven ambulances in March 1994. Together with the equipping programme, the health board has also underway a major ambulance personnel training programme.