Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 23 April 2013
634. Deputy Nicky McFadden asked the Minister for Health if he will outline the progress being made in relation to the reform of ambulance services and the management and delivery of pre hospital care services; if he will outline the way the further €12 million investment in the area will be allocated in 2013; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18812/13]
View answerA significant reform programme has been underway in recent years to totally reconfigure the way the HSE manages and delivers pre-hospital care services to ensure a clinically driven, nationally co-ordinated system, supported by improved technology. The National Ambulance Service (NAS) 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 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 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 and are operating successfully.
The National Ambulance Service has been addressing response times through a number of measures, including:
- the Performance Improvement Action Plan, focussing on local issues such as call taking and dispatch, faster crew mobilisation and community first responder schemes;
- the intermediate care service (ICS), for non-emergency ambulance transport, such as inter-hospital transfers, freeing emergency vehicles for emergency calls: nearly 40 ICS staff were appointed last year, with further resources to be deployed in 2013;
- the trial emergency aeromedical service (EAS), which reduces transit times, particularly in the West, and allows emergency vehicles to remain within their regions;
- the national control centre reconfiguration, with one national control system on two sites - Tallaght and Ballyshannon - for improved dispatch and response times, with regional, rather than local, deployment and better use of first responder schemes.
These measures, together with more effective use of existing resources, for example with improved training and better deployment through more efficient rostering, will drive the improvement of response times in every region. This will lead to better services and better outcomes when our citizens need these services.
In relation to the particular query raised by the Deputy regarding the proposal to invest €12m in the ambulance service in 2013, as this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond directly to the Deputy in this matter.
