Call for new law to regulate emergency care practitioners

The independent regulatory body overseeing paramedics and emergency care technicians in Ireland is calling for a new law to strengthen its powers to regulate paramedics and other pre-hospital emergency care practitioners.

In an opening statement to the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health, Pre-Hospital Emergency Care Council (PHECC) Director, Richard Lodge said the legislation underpinning the regulator was no longer fit for purpose and created an "unacceptable risk to public safety".

PHECC said it registers around 7,000 practitioners, with just under 2,500 deployed by the National Ambulance Service.

The council said its current powers are limited. It can advise, admonish or censure practitioners, but cannot impose conditions on their registration, suspend them or remove them from the register.

In some cases, it must rely on employers or service providers to restrict a practitioner's work.

PHECC is also seeking stronger legal protection for professional titles such as 'paramedic' and 'advanced paramedic', and clearer powers to oversee and sanction service providers.

The council said the law has not kept pace with changes in the profession, including community paramedicine.

PHECC is calling for a comprehensive Pre-Hospital Emergency Care Regulation Bill.

It said the legislation should provide stronger fitness-to-practise sanctions, protect professional titles, allow more flexible management of the register and establish a modern governance structure.

The council said it had raised the need for legislative change with the Department of Health for more than a decade.

It is asking the committee to support urgent prioritisation of new legislation.