Appointments to the Pre-Hospital Emergency Care Council

On the nomination of the Health Service Executive, the Minister for Health, Mr Simon Harris T.D., has appointed the following person as a member of the Pre-Hospital Emergency Care Council. This appointment is from 30 June 2020 to 29 June 2024.

William Merriman

William Merriman currently holds the position of Deputy Director of the National Ambulance Service in Ireland. In his role William is responsible for ensuring the efficient and effective delivery of Pre-Hospital and intermediate emergency care.

William has served with the National Ambulance Service and its predecessor the Eastern Health Board Ambulance Service for 29 years. During this time William has been employed in various areas of the National Ambulance Service. He commenced his career as an Ambulance Attendant in Athy Ambulance Station in 1991 following his leaving certificate. His career path changed, and he pursued a role in the National Ambulance Service Control Room which was originally in James’s Street Ambulance Station. He served there as an Emergency Medical Controller and was later promoted to a Control Manager in the Shared Control Room with Dublin Fire Brigade in Townsend Street.

In December 2011 he was promoted to Assistant Chief Ambulance Officer within the Eastern Region which later became the North Leinster Region (East, North East and Midlands). William was promoted to Chief Ambulance Officer for the North Leinster Region in July 2013 and remained in this role until June 2019.

During his service William has completed a number of educational programmes and is currently participating in a Level 9 Professional Certificate in Governance.

William remains to this day a registered and responding Paramedic.

On the nomination of the Health Service Executive, the Minister for Health, Mr Simon Harris T.D., has reappointed the following persons as members of the Pre-Hospital Emergency Care Council. This appointment is from 30 June 2020 to 29 June 2024.

Dr Conor Deasy

Dr Deasy is a Consultant in Emergency Medicine and interim Clinical Director, Unscheduled Care working at Cork University Hospital (CUH) and Deputy Medical Director of the National Ambulance Service. He has recently been appointed as Professor of Emergency Medicine, University College Cork/CUH and Southern Trauma Lead for Trauma Networks implementation. He is an Associate Adjunct Professor at the School of Primary Care, Monash University, Australia. He is Clinical Lead for National Office of Clinical Audit’s (NOCA) Major Trauma Audit in Ireland, Chair of the Scientific Committee of the Irish Association of Emergency Medicine (IAEM), Chair of the National Ambulance Service Research Committee, a member of the Irish Committee for Emergency Medicine Training (ICEMT) and an examiner for the College of Emergency Medicine.

Conor completed his higher specialist training program in Emergency Medicine in Ireland before moving to Australia where he worked as a Consultant in Emergency Medicine at the Alfred Emergency and Trauma Centre, Melbourne. While there he completed a PhD at the Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, Monash University in collaboration with Ambulance Victoria. To date Conor has published across the domains of patient safety, quality of care, systems of care, procedural sedation, trauma care as well as out of hospital cardiac arrest.

Qualifications: MB, BAO, BCH, BMedSc, DCH, DIMC, Dip Tox, MRCSA&E Ed, FCEM, FACEM, PhD.

Ms Tess O’Donovan

Biography to follow

Following a Public Appointment Service (PAS) campaign, the Minister for Health, Mr Simon Harris T.D., has appointed the following person as a member of the Pre-Hospital Emergency Care Council. This appointment is from 30 June 2020 to 29 June 2024.

Dr Niamh Collins

Niamh Collins is a Consultant in Emergency Medicine in Connolly Hospital, Blanchardstown and an RCSI appointed medical advisor to Dublin Fire Brigade’s paramedic programme. Her interest in pre-hospital care began as a teenager volunteering with the Order of Malta Ambulance Corps and this experience drew her to medicine and later emergency medicine.

After completing specialist registrar training in Emergency Medicine in Ireland, she undertook a fellowship in Intensive Care Medicine and then turned her attention back to pre-hospital care and was the Course Director for the Advanced Paramedic Programme in UCD 2009-10. She joined the Medical Advisory Committee of PHECC in 2009.

Niamh has extensive experience in the development and delivery of pre-hospital practitioner education and quality improvement projects, having led-out on a national advanced paramedic upskilling programme, PHECC eLearning education and the National Ambulance Patient Handover Programme. She has mentored many colleagues in the area of audit, research and quality improvement and has considerable publications in the fields of End-of-Life Care, Emergency Medicine, Pre-Hospital Care and Paramedic Education.

Qualifications:

MB BAO BCH LRCPSI, MRCPI, DCh, Dip IMC, Dip ICM, FRCEM, FJIFICMI