Dan Neville (Limerick West, Fine Gael)
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Question 77: To ask the Minister for Health and Children if she will direct the Health Service Executive to measure accident and emergency waiting time from the time of arrival, rather than the time a decision has been made to admit a patient; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [13169/09]

Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)
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In its National Service Plan 2009, the HSE has set a lower waiting time target of 6 hours for all patients attending Emergency Departments. The aim is that all patients, irrespective of whether they are admitted or not, will be assessed, treated and discharged or admitted within 6 hours of arrival at an ED. Up to now, the focus has been on waiting times for those awaiting admission. The new target will apply to all ED patients, and will be measured from the time they register at the ED.

The HSE is developing a measurement system to collect this information. A Project Group has been established by the HSE to determine the necessary clinical dataset definitions, to establish the technical requirements to enable the collection of the data, and to implement the collection of the data across the acute hospital system. The project is scheduled for completion by the end of the second quarter of 2009. In the interim, a sampling system of waiting times at selected time periods each day will be used in Emergency Departments until all hospitals can report using the new system.