Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 12 February 2013
677. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked the Minister for Health in view of the fact that there is no ambulance service in north Kildare between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. on a Thursday since September 2012, if ECHO and DELTA calls on Thursdays in this area are being responded to in the Health Information and Quality Authority recommended timeframe of 19 minutes. [7003/13]
View answer678. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked the Minister for Health the rationale for cutting the north Kildare ambulance service on Thursdays between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m.; and if there is any other ambulance area in the country with a population of 100,000 that has a 12 hour period on a weekly basis in which there is no ambulance service. [7004/13]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 677 and 678 together.
The National Ambulance Service is not a static service. The NAS deploys its emergency resources in a dynamic manner and works on an area and national, rather than a local, basis. The dynamic deployment of ambulance resources ensures that the nearest appropriate resource within a region is mobilised to the an incident.
For dynamic deployment of emergency resources within a region to be effective, those resources must be available to be used as efficiently as possible. Following a referral to the Labour Court under the Public Service Agreement, the NAS is currently progressing a number of efficiencies arising from the Court's ruling, including more efficient rostering and the removal of overtime built in to rosters. New rosters are now in place, including in the greater Dublin area, and are operating successfully. The Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) has developed key performance indicators (KPIs) for pre-hospital emergency care, which classify 999 emergency calls by clinical status. Clinical Status 1 (Echo) calls involve life-threatening emergencies of cardiac or respiratory origin, while Clinical Status 1 (Delta) calls involve life-threatening emergencies other than cardiac or respiratory. The target times for responding to Echo and Delta calls are 7 minutes 59 seconds by a first responder (a person trained in minimum basic life support and use of a defibrillator) and 18 minutes 59 seconds for a patient-carrying vehicle. With effect from January 2012, HIQA set the standard at 75% within the target time for first responders and a target has been set at 80% within the target time for patient-carrying vehicles.
The NAS has been taking a number of steps to improve emergency responses. These include development of a Performance Improvement Action Plan, an Intermediate Care Service, the national control centre reconfiguration project and a trial emergency aeromedical service.
In light of the above, and following a review of the validity of time-based KPIs, it is considered, in line with international views, that clinical outcomes would be more appropriate as performance indicators. Accordingly, work has begun on their development.I also welcome the fact that use of clinical indicators will enable a focus on Clinical Status 1 (Echo and Delta) calls.
In relation to the specific queries raised by the Deputy, as these are service matters, they have been referred to the Health Service Executive for direct reply.
