Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 29 September 2021
236. Deputy Violet-Anne Wynne asked the Minister for Health the current costings of the emergency aeromedical service offered by the Department of Defence to operate for a year; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [46990/21]
View answer237. Deputy Violet-Anne Wynne asked the Minister for Health the total sum of Exchequer funding that the emergency aeromedical service receives from the State; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [46993/21]
View answer238. Deputy Violet-Anne Wynne asked the Minister for Health the key performance indicator analysis of the emergency aeromedical service in terms of the number of callouts received from the National Ambulance Service, average arrival time and so on; and the breakdown of the number of incidents that have been attended to by the service in each of the years 2016 to 2020. [46996/21]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 236 to 238, inclusive, together.
The Emergency Aeromedical Service (EAS), based at Custume Barracks, is a nationwide Helicopter Emergency Medical Service provided by the Irish Air Corps in conjunction with the National Ambulance Service (NAS) during daylight hours. The service is staffed by an Air Corps flight crew, an Emergency Medical Technician and a NAS Advanced Paramedic. Reserve support for the EAS is provided by the Irish Coast Guard.
Regarding costs, the NAS estimated in 2020 an approximate yearly total of €711,000 to medically equip an AW139 EMS Helicopter as currently used by the Air Corps with the required staffing of two whole time equivalent Paramedics and two whole time equivalent Advanced Paramedics.
In 2021 the medical equipping and crewing elements of the EAS are being funded by the NAS from within a total allocation of €187.5 million, which includes €10 million of new development funding to increase paramedic staff numbers to target capacity deficits and to further progress the development of alternative patient care pathways.
Funding for the cost of the purchase and maintenance of the aircraft resource, the recruitment and training of pilots and other associated costs to operate and maintain the EAS are matters for my colleague, the Minister for Defence.
As the analysis of EAS call outs and response times are operational matters, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the Deputy directly, together with any updated indicative cost data that it may have.
