‘Guns to gurneys’ redeployment plan required

Last week, I had the dubious honour of engaging with a Cork-based ambulance crew.

It was dubious, because the words ambulance and happy endings are not normally together. It was an honour, however, to meet such a professional, kind and efficient team as they managed an accident incurred by a relative.

We ended up in Cork University Hospital’s emergency & department, which was like a cross between Fallujah at the height of the Iraq war and an uncensored version of ER. A frenetic but highly organised cocktail of emergency admissions was handled with the efficiency of a high end Swiss clock. After 10 hours there, I got a proper understanding of just how good the men and women working at the front end of the health services actually are.

The ambulance team leader told me about how stretched he was as just three ambulances are on service in Cork at any particular time. It was clear that this was testing everyone’s ability to meet the needs of a supposed first world society.

The stock answer to any suggestion about adding ambulances and crews is predictable. Ireland does not have the money to finance such activity in the health system as the nation is effectively bust. The troika would be horrified to hear that incremental resources were being deployed to support extra ambulances.

I have a lot of sympathy for those who strongly advocate the need to keep spending in state services under tight control. The solution proposed here is not to add an iota of additional taxpayer resources to dealing with this issue. Instead, the suggestion is to take part of an existing and underutilised piece of the state infrastructure and redeploy it.

There are almost 11,000 personnel directly employed in the Defence Forces. Many of them are fully tasked doing things necessary for the security of the State. The naval service’s role in drug interdiction and fishing protection is an excellent example.

But what about other parts of the defence infrastructure? Why do we, for example, believe the operation of a squadron of seven light attack aircraft (Pilatus PC9s), and their attendant crews and support systems, is in the best interests of Ireland over the next decade? How many medically trained nurses, medics and drivers exist inside the Defence Forces that can be redeployed in the current emergency state this country finds itself in?

How hard can it be for someone at a really serious political level to consider reallocating resources in a fundamental way that keeps total spending on hold while injecting needed personnel resources to that part of the state sector which is under the most duress.

Consider the addition of just two fully equipped and manned ambulances to the Cork City unit. That force multiplier would raise ambulance capacity by 66% immediately. Imagine doing that across 10 cities by targeting suitably qualified defence force personnel, or personnel who could be skilled up relatively quickly. Such action could help hard pressed health managers while minimising the gross budgetary impact.

Ireland, lets admit, remains on an economic war footing. Huge strides have been made since 2008 to correct hopelessly unbalanced national accounts. Health lies at the heart of that budgetary correction but is being restructured amid a population that continues to grow and age.

If we genuinely cherish the ambition to have world class health services, radical solutions must be found to resourcing. A major redeployment of resources (people) from defence to health could form part of a radical “guns to gurneys” initiative. Hospital staff deserve serious brainstorming by their leaders on this issue.

* Joe Gill is a director of corporate broking with Goodbody. His views are personal