Taskforce to tackle HSE’s multimillion-euro debt to Dublin council for ambulance services

A taskforce has been set up to tackle the multimillion-euro debt owed to Dublin City Council by the HSE for the provision of ambulances over a 15-year period.

The council is owed up to €116 million from the HSE for the provision of emergency ambulance services by Dublin Fire Brigade in the Dublin region.

Dublin Fire Brigade runs an emergency ambulance service for when the National Ambulance Service (NAS) is not available. It also sends out fire tenders when no ambulance is available, which figures show occurred 3,066 times last year.

The council and the HSE have been in a long-running dispute over the funding of this ambulance service. The council has claimed the HSE owes arrears for the provision of the service since 2007.

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At a recent meeting of the Regional Health Forum for Dublin and the North East, a presentation was given by Robert Morton, the director of the HSE’s NAS, on what it owes to the council. He added that Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien and Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly have agreed to establish a taskforce on the matter.

Mr Morton said that its scope is expected to include an agreed implementation plan for the location of emergency ambulance call-taking and dispatch and a governance framework for a service delivery model that is organisational and clinical. It will also cover the service cost recoupment, and will report regularly on progress to both Ministers.

Mr Morton told the forum that Dublin still does not have a single integrated control centre for 999 emergency ambulance calls.

He said: “Consequently, there is a joint concern by both the HSE and DCC [Dublin City Council] that the governance arrangements in place for the delivery of the ambulance services have not kept pace with the recommended operation of the ambulance service and this must be addressed.”

The NAS director explained that a review of ambulance services in Ireland conducted 30 years ago in 1993 identified a series of issues relating to the duplication of ambulance services in the Dublin area.

The current funding support arrangements between the HSE and the council are grounded in the recommendations of that review.

Fianna Fáil councillor Deirdre Heney and Independent councillor Christy Burke raised their concerns over the spiralling debt.

Cllr Burke said if the debt is allowed to go “unchecked and increasing out of control, services provided by the council and indeed the fire and emergency services will be severely impacted”.

“An agreement was made 29 years ago between the HSE and council to provide such services only when there was a gap in emergency services but this has not kept pace with how emergency needs have changed, a rise in the population and the lack of financial resources keeping pace with rocketing costs.”