Joe McHugh (Donegal North East, Fine Gael)
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895. To ask the Minister for Health if he will confirm that ambulance responses in County Donegal follow internal Health Service Executive guidelines or the pertinent Health Information Quality Authority standards; if HIQA will set out its views on two relevant experiences (details supplied); if he will outline HSE plans to improve national consistency in response times. [1617/14]

James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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The Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) published its Pre-hospital Emergency Care Key Performance Indicators for Emergency Response Time in 2011. This set of key performance indicators (KPIs) classified 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.

The National Ambulance Service (NAS) uses the response time targets set out in the HSE National Service Plan. For ECHO calls, the Service exceeded its 2013 response time target of 70% of patient-carrying vehicles on scene within 18 minutes 59 seconds. The DELTA response time performance was 4% below the national target of 68%. In 2014, the targets have increased to 80% for both call types.

Response time targets have been in use in other jurisdictions for many years. Since they were introduced in 2011, the HSE has been implementing the HIQA response time standards on a phased basis, in tandem with planned improvements in service delivery, such as the consolidation of control centres, improved dispatch processes and technology and the introduction of non-emergency stretcher transport, through the Intermediate Care Service, to free up emergency resources. It is acknowledged that response time indicators should not be used in isolation to evaluate 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 should also be used. Work is in progress on the development of clinical outcome indicators for pre-hospital emergency responses. The first outcome indicator, for return of spontaneous circulation in the Emergency Department in 40% of certain out-of-hospital cardiac arrests, has been introduced in 2014.

HIQA will continue to monitor the performance of the NAS in line with current KPIs, to inform its review of the governance arrangements of pre-hospital emergency care services in order to ensure the timely assessment, management and transport of acutely ill patients to appropriate healthcare facilities.