The Garda Representative Association (GRA) has expressed concern that Garda patrol cars were being used to transport patients to hospitals instead of ambulances.
GRA members were being forced to make decisions without the relevant medical knowledge or training, GRA vice president Brendan O’Connor told Newstalk Breakfast.
'Purely medical'
Gardaí were routinely dispatched to situations that were “purely medical”, he said.
“Gardaí and our colleagues in the National Ambulance Service have always had a crossover — there are numerous occasions where we’d need to assist them, from something as simple as assisting with lifting a patient to if there was a public order element.
“What we’ve been seeing in recent times is gardaí being sent to calls, where an ambulance is not available or in advance of the arrival of an ambulance.”
Mr O’Connor pointed out that there had been two incidents recently — one in Dundalk and one in Donegal — where gardaí were on the scene, but there was no ambulance and one was “unlikely” to arrive.
“The guards found themselves in a position where they had to make a decision whether it was appropriate to place the person in a car and bring them to hospital.”
Medical knowledge
The gardaí simply did not have the medical knowledge to make such decisions, he said. It was “inappropriate and not exactly good practice” to put gardaí in such a position.
There needed to be a clear protocol on such situations, he said, along with clarity on the role and responsibility of gardaí responding to emergency calls.
