Sir, - Recently I was a guest at a pleasant evening function in the wilds of Wicklow when one of the other guests was taken ill. I had to do the best I could to help but immediately called for an ambulance. This arrived from Arklow in 17 minutes. The team of two were competent and quick and my short-term patient was taken to hospital and has done well.
This type of incident is common; and while I want to publicly praise the ambulance staff, now called emergency medical technicians, I want also to support the comments made in your paper some weeks ago by Dr Emer Shelly, the national heart adviser in the Department of Health. She pointed out that the Pre-Hospital Emergency Care Council now ensures that ambulance staff are trained to a very high level and asked that they are allowed administer drugs to patients when they are called to deal with emergencies.
For example, if the patient involved is diagnosed by them with their high-powered cardiac equipment as having had a coronary, they should be permitted to give thrombolytic drugs (which break down clots) intravenously, because the earlier these are given the better the patient's prognosis. Also, if the patient is in great pain, they should be allowed to give morphine or other analgesics.
We cannot, nor should we have, a five-star hospital at every crossroads, but we should bring in legislation to let the emergency medical technicians fulfil the role for which they have been trained. I fully support Dr Shelly's call for this legislation to be brought forward immediately. - Yours, etc.,
Senator MARY HENRY, MD, Seanad Éireann, Dublin 2.