Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I propose to take Questions Nos. 9, 13, 29, 44, 46 and 76 together.

Ambulance turnaround times measure the time interval from ambulance arrival at a hospital, to when the crew is ready to accept another call. When the emergency care system is under pressure, there is the potential for delay in the transfer of care of patients from ambulance to emergency department personnel. I accept that in a number of hospitals, including those highlighted in the individual questions, the emergency departments are particularly busy and this can contribute significantly to delays in ambulance turnaround.

A framework has been developed to create a standardised approach between the national ambulance service and acute hospital emergency departments which allows all parties to understand their role in the timely release of ambulance resources from acute hospitals.

In addition, the framework sets out the escalation process to alert management, both within the national ambulance service and acute hospitals, to significant increases in emergency demand and activity, and occurrences of delayed turnarounds. Hospital management is tasked to enable the release of all ambulance resources in a safe manner.

In regard to emergency department overcrowding, my Department and the HSE are developing a plan focused on working with hospitals to improve performance, and overall patient experience which should also assist in improving ambulance turnaround times. I have been assured that the HSE is committed to ensuring that patients are clinically handed over in a safe, professional and timely manner; with the safety and dignity of the patient being of paramount importance.

If we are serious about reducing the turnaround times it means that we need to reduce the length of time people are spending in our emergency departments. It is with that in mind that I very much welcome the INMO's figures this morning which show a 12% decrease in the number of people on hospital trolleys awaiting admission in April of this year compared to April of last year. We still have a long way to go in this regard, and I look forward to talking to the INMO about recruitment of more nurses. We have ambitious plans in place to hire 1,208 new nurses this year and have a number of incentives to try and assist in that regard, because it is very much interlinked with the ability of an ambulance to get in, safely hand over the patient, and get back to doing exactly what we want them to do.

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