PATIENTS GOING into hospital in six months’ time will be given a date for their discharge within 24 hours, as well as dates for scans or other tests they need to have carried out while admitted, Health Service Executive chief Prof Brendan Drumm said yesterday.
He was speaking at the publication of the HSE’s annual report for 2007, where he stressed that the HSE will continue to have to change the way it works.
By giving patients discharge dates on admission it will be less likely they stay in hospital too long, blocking expensive hospital beds that could be used by patients waiting on trolleys in AE, for example.
There is an increasing recognition, Prof Drumm said, that “the solution to the challenges we face is not simply more of the same and bigger budgets – it is making better use of existing resources”.
He warned that if unemployment rates were to increase significantly by the end of the year it could put further pressure on the HSE’s budget, which has already been overspent by €100 million in the first quarter of the year. This would be because more people would be seeking medical cards.
He said various cost containment measures will be pursued to offset the cost overruns incurred to date. But he stressed the HSE was not in crisis, and that continuing to portray it as such was demoralising for its hard-working staff. He said significant strides were being made on the HSE’s transformation programme.
He claimed that the HSE had spent all its capital budget allocated for buildings and equipment last year, unlike in other years when millions were left unspent and had to be returned to the exchequer.
But the Oireachtas health committee was told last December that €20 million which was set aside as capital funding for information technology in the health sector last year was used to offset the HSE’s deficit of €255 million in 2007. Prof Drumm said yesterday that this did not mean all capital monies were not used appropriately last year. He said the IT capital money was “different”. It could not be spent without having a comprehensive IT plan in place, he stressed.
Last year there was considerable criticism of the HSE after its 2006 annual report revealed it had failed to spend €97.7 million that was allocated to it by the Government for new developments and facilities that year.
The HSE’s latest annual report indicates there were significant increases in activity in its hospitals last year, compared with 2006. The number of inpatients treated was up 3.7 per cent to 614,291; the number of outpatient attendances was up 5.1 per cent to just over three million; and births rose by 11.7 per cent to just over 70,000. This was the highest number recorded in the last 25 years.
The report also shows the HSE dealt with 4,376 complaints last year. Most were in relation to treatment/service delivery, delays/waiting times and communication issues.
The chairman of the HSE board Liam Downey said that when the HSE looked at cost containment measures, the last thing they looked at were service cuts.
He said that the HSE had made good progress during 2007 on its health service reform agenda. “This involves a variety of initiatives including reconfiguration of services to deliver better quality, changing work practices, and better measurement and monitoring of outputs in order to improve services for patients. While much of this is difficult and challenging to implement, we have established a clear direction and platform for change in many important areas,” he said.
Health service reform is timely and delivering results, page 14