Dáil Éireann debate -
Thursday, 22 Apr 1999

Vol. 503 No. 5

Written Answers. - Ambulance Service.

Denis Naughten

Question:

80 Mr. Naughten asked the Minister for Health and Children the average call-out time for an ambulance to a road accident in each of the health board regions; the plans, if any, he has to reduce the call-out time; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10599/99]

Minister for Health and Children (Mr. Cowen)

The most up to date figures currently available to my Department are as follows.

Ambulance Service Area	% of calls respondedto within 20 minutes
Eastern Health Board	97%
Midland Health Board	58%
Mid-Western Health Board	78%
North-Eastern Health Board	76%
North-Western Health Board	53%
South-Eastern Health Board	61%
Southern Health Board	86%
Western Health Board	56%

These figures were collected in the context of a value for money report on the emergency ambulance service carried out by the Comptroller and Auditor General published in November 1997. As a first step towards routine response times monitoring, I have asked each of the health boards to ensure that response times data for emergency and urgent calls be collected and analysed on a quarterly sample basis ending 31 March 1999. This data is due to be submitted to my Department by the health boards shortly.

The Deputy should, however, be aware that while response times are an important indicator of performance for ambulance services, it is also important to focus on quality of care and clinical effectiveness. In this regard, a standard patient report form has been introduced to facilitate the development of clinical audit in pre-hospital care. In addition, appropriate clinical care standards to underpin the developments currently taking place are at an advanced stage of development and will be brought into use later this year.

The development of more explicit standards for performance measurement is a key element of the implementation of the health strategy in the ambulance service. In this regard, funding has been provided to each health board both in 1998 and 1999 for the development of ambulance response times and quality of care monitoring.

Denis Naughten

Question:

81 Mr. Naughten asked the Minister for Health and Children the plans, if any, he has to introduce an air ambulance service for call-out to road accidents; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10600/99]

Minister for Health and Children (Mr. Cowen)

Since 1965 an arrangement has been in place whereby the Air Corps provides air ambulance transport to health boards for emergency cases. This service is generally provided in emergencies requiring the removal of badly injured or very ill persons over long distances, particularly where they cannot be safely conveyed by road ambulance. The service is also provided for the removal from the islands of persons requiring urgent hospital attention when weather conditions are such as to make boat transport impossible or hazardous to the patient. Since August 1991, the marine search and rescue helicopter service of the Department of the Marine, which operates from Shannon airport, is also available for air ambulance transport in cases of emergency.

I am aware of the role which a dedicated air ambulance service could play in enhancing the effectiveness of the ambulance service. However, proposals for the development of an air ambulance service must be placed in the wider context of developments in emergency medical services generally and any initiative in this area must complement other pre-hospital resources such as the ambulance service and first responder programme. The particular role of air ambulance was examined by the standing committee on air ambulance services. The standing committee undertook a detailed examination of a number of independent proposals for the establishment of a dedicated helicopter emergency medical service which were received from groups interested in this area. Meetings took place with a number of these groups.

Following these meetings, officials of my Department have worked with other interested parties to clarify a number of issues regarding needs, costs and benefits deriving from having a dedicated and purpose-equipped air ambulance service.

I remain committed to further improving pre-hospital care services and I have allocated an additional £2.7 million for developments in the field of pre-hospital care in 1999. This funding represents the largest ever increase in resources for this area and will assist considerably in improving emergency medical services.