HSE to meet groups on ambulance changes
INNOVATION Minister Sean Sherlock has confirmed late Wednesday evening (as The Corkman was going to press) that the HSE is to meet local Dr Bertie Daly and members of a Youghal-based protest group to discuss proposed changes to the Cork ambulance service with a view to 'working out, compromising and engaging with people on their proposals.'
"The view amongst doctors on the ground was that this was being presented as a done deal, as if their concerns are not being listened to.
"As a Minister, my view is that if there are changes it should be about bringing people with you, to work towards engagement with a progress reporting mechanism coming back to local representatives," he said. CORK people have been called upon to volunteer to respond to heart attacks within eight minutes — so the Health Service Executive can reach its targets for responding to cardiac incidents.
At a press conference on changes to the ambulance service in Cork and Kerry last Monday, the National Ambulance Service confirmed that members of the public trained to use defibrillators are counted as 'first responders' under the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) evaluation system.
The HSE said that its ambulance service is subject to recommendations from HIQA, which stated that patients with life-threatening cardiac and or respiratory arrest incidents are to be responded to within eight minutes.
The HSE is then required to have a 'patient-carrying vehicle' at the scene of the incident within 19 minutes of the call.
Dr Cathal O'donnell, Consultant in Emergency Medicine and Medical Director of the HSE National Ambulance Service, said the HSE would require 12 volunteers for every 8km area for the scheme to provide adequate cover for life-threatening cardiac incidents.
The Irish Heart Foundation is training members of the public to be cardiac first responders.
Meanwhile, a so-called 'Good Samaritan Act' is currently progressing its way through the Dail which will protect volunteers from legal liability when responding to an incident, Robert Morton, National Ambulance Service Director explained.
He added that volunteers would be integrated into a HSE response database which is to be co-ordinated from a new, centralised national control centre.
Thousands of people are already trained to use locally based defibrillators across the country, with a large take-up of community based schemes already experienced in West Cork and Kerry, Mr Morton said.
He conceded, however, that hundreds of volunteers would be required in Cork for targeted response times to be met.
The ambulance service is then to adapt how it targets the positioning of its paramedic response vehicles depending on the take up in volunteers in various areas.
- JOE LEOGUE
