Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Independent)

The Deputy will be aware that the manner in which hospitals and clinicians are now assessed is across performance indicators. The key performance indicators are available on a monthly basis and make for very interesting reading. There is a huge variation, even in emergency departments, between the number of patients seen per medic or nurse in one part of the country as compared with another and between hospitals. There is also a variation in costs, which I accept is in some instances related to the acuity of what is being dealt with. One must compare like with like. If one compares ratios of patients to doctors or nurses, there is a huge variation across the country. Now that we have performance indicators we are able to access this information. What one does not measure one cannot manage. We did not have these indicators before nor did we have appropriate waiting times in emergency departments.

Three years ago we were only measuring people waiting 24 hours for treatment. We recently commenced measuring those waiting 12 hours for treatment and more recently six hours. From the end of March all hospitals will be required to measure not alone patients waiting six hours for treatment but the length of time of treatment from when they arrive at the door which, rather than the time the decision is made by the clinician to admit the person, is the issue. All of these steps are being taken with a view to improving and driving efficiency.

On beds, we often become obsessed with numbers.

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