THE Fianna Fáil TD for Cavan-Monaghan, Niamh Smyth, says urgent action must be taken to address the huge deterioration in ambulance turnaround times over the past two years. She claimed this week that ambulance turnaround times which measure the time interval from an ambulance arrival at a hospital, to when the crew is ready to accept another call, has considerably deteriorated.
She said that in 2012 HIQA said that all hospitals in Ireland should monitor the implementation of the National Ambulance Patient Handover Time in line with the National Emergency Medicine Programme which requires 95% of patients being handed over from an ambulance crew to the emergency…
