Professor Cathal O'Donnell:

I thank the Deputy. It is a good question. Ambulance response time targets are a blunt instrument for measuring the capability of an ambulance service. They are easily understood, intuitive and make sense. If I dial 999, I want an ambulance to come quickly. That is reasonable, but a 19-minute response time over the breadth of clinical presentations we see often does not impact on patient outcomes. From a clinical perspective, we are more interested in how we can improve the patient's acute healthcare need there and then. We send two highly trained clinicians on a call. If they get there within 19, 20 or 15 minutes of a person having a heart attack or stroke or with a broken leg, that is a blunt instrument in measuring success.

We currently measure four clinical KPIs. There is cardiac arrest, when your heart stops. We measure the proportion of patients we get to an emergency department where we have restarted the heart prior to arrival. That is one point on that patient's clinical journey. We compare favourably internationally on that one. This year we have introduced three new ones. Two are related to stroke care, which Mr. Morton mentioned and which are very important. One is on pain relief. If you are in pain and we come out to you, how good are we at relieving your pain? We have a further suite of these that we will continue to add to in the coming years.