Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 26 May 2026
1149. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Health whether the National Ambulance Service defines any ambulance response delay duration as constituting a potential patient safety incident in and of itself; and if so, the thresholds applied. [38877/26]
View answer1150. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Health whether any ambulance delays exceeding 60 minutes resulted in incident reviews, serious incident assessments, or patient-safety escalations in 2024, 2025 or to date in 2026. [38878/26]
View answer1152. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Health whether the Department of Health has assessed whether the absence of national reporting on extreme ambulance delays limits oversight of patient safety risks. [38880/26]
View answer1153. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Health whether HIQA has ever been requested to examine governance arrangements relating to prolonged ambulance response times. [38881/26]
View answer1154. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Health whether ambulance delays are incorporated into any corporate, enterprise, or clinical risk registers maintained by the HSE or National Ambulance Service. [38882/26]
View answer1155. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Health whether the Department receives any routine exception reporting where NAS response performance materially deteriorates below National Service Plan KPI levels. [38883/26]
View answer1156. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Health whether any internal review has examined whether prolonged ambulance delays should constitute automatically reportable adverse incidents. [38884/26]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 1149, 1150, 1152, 1153, 1154, 1155 and 1156 together.
As previously outlined to the Deputy, National Ambulance Service (NAS) performance against Key Performance Indicator targets included in the Health Service Executive's National Service Plan is reported on a monthly basis in line with the HSE's Performance Management Framework. The Framework is designed to ensure that delivery of all its healthcare services, including those provided by the NAS, are of the highest quality and performance is assessed against the targets and objectives in the NSP using a comprehensive Performance Engagement Model.
The HSE's Incident Management Framework, which also applies to the NAS, is designed to implement a person-centred response to any reportable safety incidents. The approach in the Incident Management Framework closely aligns the response to such events with the HSE's overarching values of care, compassion, trust and learning. A link the Framework is enclosed below for the Deputy's information, and I have asked the Health Service Executive (HSE) to respond directly to the Deputy with any further information it may have.
www2.healthservice.hse.ie/organisation/nqpsd/featured-articles/incident-management-framework-and-open-disclosure-audit-tool/.
