Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)

A total of 184,159 people attended accident and emergency departments in January and February this year. Of these, one third, about 61,000, were admitted as inpatients. The vast majority of these patients were admitted without delay. The HSE reports daily at 2 p.m. on the numbers of remaining patients who have not been admitted immediately. The report cites the waiting times as being either between zero to six hours, six to 12 hours, 12 to 24 hours and more than 24 hours. The number of patients waiting in each category as a proportion of the total who are not admitted immediately can be calculated on a daily basis.

The number of patients waiting in each category as a proportion of total admissions is not immediately apparent from the published data. For example, yesterday was Monday which is traditionally a day of heavy demand and approximately 3,100 people attended accident and emergency departments. Of these, 1,000 would have been admitted for care, 870 were admitted immediately and 123 people were reported as waiting for admission. The total number of patients reported by the HSE as waiting for admission for more than 12 hours was 46 persons. I would much prefer if that number were much lower or even zero but it represents 4.6% of admitted patients and 1.5% of all patients presenting at accident and emergency departments.

It is important to set clear targets for improvement and to measure performance accordingly. This was never done in the past. In line with this approach, the HSE has introduced a target waiting time of no more than 12 hours from the time a decision is taken to admit a patient. A number of hospitals have commenced reporting information from the time the patient presents, and the HSE expects to be in a position to publish data on up to 18 hospitals in the next few weeks.

Significant additional resources have been provided to address problems arising in accident and emergency departments. These include additional long-stay beds and a range of community-based measures aimed at reducing the need to use acute hospital services.

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