HEALTH STATS
New HSE system allows patients to see how busy their local hospital is as cases presenting on the rise
21 hospital's data features in the new dashboard so far
THE HSE has launched a new system that allows patients to see how busy their local hospital is as cases presenting to hospitals nationwide are on the rise.
However, consultants have warned that the new data provides "little value" in understanding each hospital's individual circumstances.
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The new outpatient attendance dashboard is on the HSE's website and can be viewed by name or by health region.
Only one Dublin-based hospital, Connolly Hospital Blanchardstown, has been featured in the data.
The HSE said that the data is "preliminary" and they hope to add more hospitals in the future.
The HSE said: "We publish a report on the average number of outpatient appointments seen by health region, hospital, specialty and consultant in 21 hospitals.
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"We don't show data for all hospitals. But are working towards adding more hospitals to this report in the future.
"The data in this report is preliminary. This means that hospitals may update it in the future. But it is a good indicator of activity based on the latest information we have."
Of the 21 hospitals featured, Galway University Hospital, Cork University Hospital and University Hospital Limerick have the busiest outpatient clinics.
Galway University Hospital has a monthly average attendance of 28,194.
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The average monthly attendance at Cork University Hospital is 27,624, and UHL sees 20,430 average monthly visits at its outpatient clinics.
The busiest specialities are Orthopaedics at 22,507, Obstetrics at 19,525, and General Medicine at 13,569.
However, 32,212 of the average monthly attendances are marked as 'not mapped.'
The Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) welcomed the publication of the data but said that "further examination" is required.
Professor Matthew Sadlier, Chair of the IMO's Consultants' Committee said that multiple factors are not being taken into account in the report.
The consultant chief explained: "While we welcome the publication of this productivity data today, it is important to note that the kind of blanket approach of comparing hospital sites is of little value in terms of understanding what is happening at individual hospital level.
“There are multiple factors that could be influencing this trend and which have not been addressed in this report."
This includes access to clinics, how complicated treatment is as well as access to beds, scans and operating theatres at the hospitals.
When the IMO spoke with the HSE in June, the health chiefs "acknowledged" that key factors impacting hospital productivity were not considered in the new data.
The HSE said: "There are a number of reasons why there will be variances [in productivity] between hospitals, within clinical specialties."
Professor Sadlier said that "blaming consultants is not the solution" and called for a "properly resourced and funded plan" to tackle the issue.
He said: "Our chronic shortage of bed capacity and the ongoing recruitment freeze have resulted in ever-lengthening waiting list numbers which in many cases are resulting in poor patient outcomes.
"A properly resourced and funded plan is urgently needed to ensure our system can deal with both urgent and non-urgent care and any investigation into hospital productivity needs to take all factors into account.”