Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 28 May 2013
690. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Minister for Health if he will hold an investigation into the lack of resources available to the ambulance services in County Meath and the resultant threat to patient safety. [25887/13]
View answerA significant reform programme has been underway in recent years in pre-hospital care services across the country, including the North East, to ensure a clinically driven, nationally co-ordinated system, supported by improved technology. The programme involves a number of measures, including the Performance Improvement Action Plan, development of the intermediate care service (ICS), the trial emergency aeromedical service (EAS), and the National Ambulance Service (NAS) Control Centre Reconfiguration Project.
The NAS is taking steps to addressing challenges nationally such as reliance on on-call rostering, geography, resourcing and the use of emergency ambulances for routine transport. The move from on-call to on-duty rostering for ambulance services is a key part of improving the service as highly trained paramedic crews are on site in their stations or vehicles to respond immediately to dispatches. The NAS is also developing non-emergency transport, the national intermediate care service (ICS), for routine clinical transfers of patients, freeing ambulances for emergency responses.
In relation to the query raised by the Deputy in relation to ambulance services specifically in the Meath area, as these are operational issues for the HSE I have asked the HSE to reply directly to the Deputy.
