1

Presentation

on

North East Ambulance Service

from

Oliver Reilly, Asst Chief Ambulance Officer

to

Regional Health Forum – Dublin North East

26th April 2010

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Role & Purpose

The role and purpose of the Health Service Executive National Ambulance Service is to provide a clinically appropriate and timely pre-hospital care and transportation service

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Key Operational Roles

Provide Pre-Hospital Emergency Medical Services

Provide routine non-ambulant patient transport within the health care sector

Operate the Ambulance Command & Control Centre

To participate with internal and external organisations in the areas of Major Emergency Management

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Area of Operation

Louth, Meath, Cavan, Monaghan

Area - 6,500 sq. KM

Population - 360,000

10,000 kms of road network - N1,M1,N2,N3,N4

Daily bus services to/from Dublin as well as transit traffic

Enterprise rail services daily between Dublin and Belfast - 200-500 passengers

Local train services - circa 4,000 passengers daily

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Command & Control Centre Located in Navan Deals with all emergency,

urgent and routine ambulance and patient transport requests

Computer Aided Dispatch system

Automatic Vehicle Location System

Ordnance Survey Mapping

An Post Gazetteer Links to neighbouring

centres

6

Call Categories

Emergency – Immediate response usually via 999/112 emergency centres

Urgent – Within one hour or as agreed with GP

Routine – Pre-Planned calls no time limit (transfers, OPD clinics)

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Activity 2009

Emergency Calls

GP Urgent Admissions

Non Urgent Calls

Total Calls Total Mileage

17,343 6,621 13,799 37,763 1,717,652

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Ambulance Stations & Resources

Cavan; 2 crews x day, 1 x night

Virginia; 1 crew x day, 1x night

Navan; 3 crews x day, 2x night

Dunshaughlin; 2 crews x day, 1 x night

Drogheda; 2 crews x day, 1 x night

Ardee; 1 crew x day, 1 x night

Castleblayney; 1 crew x day, 1 x night

Dundalk; 3 crews x day, 2 x night

Monaghan; 2 crews x day, 2 x night 1 RRV 24/7

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Training Developments

1967 First Basic Ambulance Aid Course (6 weeks) 1986 National Ambulance Training School

Established 1988 Ambulance Aid Refresher Course (2 weeks) 1997 Emergency Medical Technician (Conversion)

Course in conjunction with UCD (6 weeks) 2006 Advanced Paramedic Training Programme (12

months) 2008 Paramedic Training Programme (24 months)

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Staff

Title Number

Chief Ambulance OfficerAsst Chief Ambulance Officer

11

Operations OfficerControl & Communications Officer

3

1

Training OfficerEmergency Management Officer

11

11

Staff cont’d………

Emergency Medical Controller-Team Leader

Emergency Medical Controller

49

Leading ParamedicAdvanced Paramedic

Paramedic

212094

Patient Transport ServiceAdministration

96

Total 171

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Advanced Paramedic

Experienced ParamedicCourse duration: 35 weeks (16 distance

learning, 12 weeks clinical taught/placements, 7 weeks internship) UCD delivered

12 months Post Grad InternshipAdvanced airway proceduresCardiac drugsIntravenous infusions

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Paramedic

Registered Practitioner9 weeks college based19 weeks internship12 months Post Grad InternshipIM medications including Glucagon

and Adrenaline 1:1000Airway procedures including LMA12 lead ECG interpretation

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Fleet

Emergency Ambulance

Patient Transport Vehicle

Officer Transport Vehicle

Rapid Response Vehicle

Special/Major Incident Vehicles

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Transformation & Reconfiguration

Castleblayney Ambulance Station opened July 2009 Rapid Response Vehicle deployed in Monaghan Additional Patient Transport Service capacity Additional resources for Louth/Meath

reconfiguration Development of Direct Access Angioplasty Project Staff compliment will increase by approximately 29% Advanced Paramedic training ongoing Ambulance Service key stakeholder

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Future Developments

Further development of National Ambulance Service

Advanced Paramedic training to recommended 25% of staff

Direct access Angioplasty ProjectTETRA Digital Radio System National Communications

infrastructure

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Questions?