Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
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Question 212: To ask the Minister for Health if he will provide the average waiting time for each hospital emergency department, and the equivalent time last year in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15934/12]

James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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As this is a service issue, it has been referred to the HSE for direct reply.

Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
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Question 213: To ask the Minister for Health the basis on which emergency department waiting times are currently calculated. [15935/12]

James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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Currently details of Emergency Department waiting times are published on the HSE's website under the Monthly Performance Report (PR) using a combination of full Patient Experience Time (PET) and sampling PET data.

Building on the achievements of 2011, the Special Delivery Unit (SDU) will work with the National Treatment Purchase Fund, the HSE Clinical Programmes and hospitals to minimise patient waiting times in emergency departments along with reducing waiting periods for in-patient and day case elective surgical care.

The SDU is currently working on a refined methodology for recording Emergency Department waiting times for patients (PET) across the system. It is planned to have a number of hospitals reporting on the basis of the PET method by the second quarter of 2012. Work will continue to bring the remaining hospitals on stream as quickly as possible. Full PET data for individual hospitals will be published when it comes on stream and in the interim, data derived from sampling will be used.

During 2012, the SDU will extend the coverage of the Patient Experience Time methodology to ensure that the data is captured in a uniform manner across the hospital system.