Dan Buckley
Irish Examiner
13 February 2010
A SCATHING report on Ireland’s hospital emergency departments by the State’s spending watchdog shows that waiting times rose last year despite assurances by Health Minister Mary Harney that services are improving.
A review of emergency departments by the Comptroller and Auditor General has found that 46% of patients had to wait 12 hours or more in early 2009 for a bed and that the waiting time for admission is unsatisfactory in most cases.
A comparison of the average waiting time for admission covering the first five months of 2009 compared with the same period in 2008 indicated that there had been an increase in the number of patients waiting 12 hours or more…
…In his report, Comptroller John Buckley said restrictive working practices in the diagnostic disciplines, such as X-rays, had to be addressed.
His review of 33 of the country’s 50 acute hospitals also found a considerable differences in capacity and cost per attendance.
The number of patients handled by medical staff across emergency departments in the country ranged from 8 to 31 per day, while there was a major gap in the cost-range per attendance, from €85 to €281 per attendance [$116-$383 US).
Read the entire article at the Irish Examiner.
