Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 15 October 2013
399. Deputy Nicky McFadden asked the Minister for Health the way ambulance response times are currently assessed by the Health Service Executive; if an assessment of ambulance response times will be carried out nationally; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43072/13]
View answerThe Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) published the Pre-hospital Emergency Care Key Performance Indicators for Emergency Response Time in October 2012. They developed a set of key performance indicators (KPIs), which classify 112/999 emergency calls by clinical status. Clinical Status 1 ECHO calls involve life-threatening emergencies of cardiac or respiratory origin. Clinical Status 1 DELTA calls involve life-threatening emergencies of other than cardiac or respiratory origin. Target response times for patient-carrying vehicles set the percentage of cases in which an ambulance responds to Clinical Status 1 ECHO and DELTA incidents within 18 minutes 59 seconds.
It is acknowledged that response-time indicators should not be used in isolation as a means of evaluating of pre-hospital emergency service delivery. Following a review of the validity of time-based KPIs for clinical status data, and in line with international views, it is considered that clinical outcome indicators would be more appropriate. For example, there may be significant regional variations in response times because of the influence of differing geographic and demographic factors in different areas, while outcomes may be similar. Work is now in progress on the development of clinical outcome indicators for pre-hospital emergency responses.
The HSE publishes monthly performance data, including performance information for pre-hospital emergency response times at national level. This information is collected from data reported at regional level within the National ambulance Service and is available to management for information and to facilitate response time assessment and decision-making in relation to local and national service provision. In relation to the specific queries, as these are service matters, I have asked the HSE to respond directly to the Deputy.
