ambulance service disfunctional

Torpedo

drill wrote: »

Ivab,

yes the fire tender issue needs to be addressed 5 paras avaible for amb calls etc. But have to say it’s a huge step forward at last maybe we mite get nearest ambo to a call. ( and then work on resources - tenders/rrv etc)

One dispatch is the key, as said above there will be noses out of joint however it’s done. dfb or nas or joint etc, will never please everyone no matter how they do it.

At least there is a start with tallaght, from what ive heard it there will be 45 call taker / dispatch desks in main control room with a 12 desk major incident room, 20 desk pts room, and 120 new jobs!

When is the call centre to come online? Dublin doesn't have any community frist responder programs at the moment, will this help or is there even a need for them?

supermedic

Torpedo, the new centre is due to be fully operational in October of this year. Building is purchased and the fit out has already started, along with all of the technology need to make the national system work.

As far as first responders are concerned, probably not going to happen in the short term. Up to now the DFB have been open to the idea, but in reality resisted the concept. The Gardai got involved in the First responder idea several years ago in Blanchardstown and Kilkenny with support from the HSE. They trained and equiped members with AED's and in Kilkenny it worked very well. In Dublin , the DFB never called them and so it faded away. I would assume they wanted to protect their fire tender first responder status and to have any one else do it would not have been good for them.

The HSE CFR scheme in Wicklow has been a massive success with 32 AED equiped communities and some 500 members who have attended thousands of call outs and provide a fantastic service.

5500

Any chance of giving an insight as to how the current control works in townsend street.

Ie call comes in having requested an ambulance, does it automatically go to dfb or eras? If one service has nothing available is it automatically sent onto the other service?

I see closest dispatch mentioned alot too, is that not the case already? is there no form of gps onscreen tracking that will say show X near Y who's just made a call or is that there but each service has its own independant system?

supermedic

Calls come from members of public through 999/112 and are passed by the operator to DFB if the call is in the geographical area under their control (Donnybrook to Swords) Calls from the rest of Dublin, all of Kildare and Wicklow go to HSE controllers in the same room.

The vast majority of Hospital calls and GP calls go to HSE control. All pre booked PTS work goes to a separate control room in Townsend street.
If one service can not respond to a call, they will ask the other to respond. A little bit of common sense, will mean not responding a vehicle form miles away if you know that a crew will be freed up at a hospital much closer to the incident in the next minutes.

Not sure about the DFB, but the HSE have an AVL system which constantly displays the location and status of each vehicle. It can even be used to guide a crew directly to a house or location.

With the new control centre in Tallaght by the end of the year, all ambulances operating in Dublin (HSE & DFB)will have AVL, all will be doing both AS1 and AS2 work, no more PTS. Nearest crew will be dispatched. Those calls that are appropriate will be passed to the DFB fire control to respond additional manpower or as first responders in the event of a delay in an Ambulance response.