THE LATEST PERFMORMANCE report from the HSE reveals that no hospital reached the targets sets for discharge or admittance to wards.

The report, which contains data to the end of March 2012 found that no facility managed to discharge or admit 95 per cent of attendees within 6 hours, or 100 per cent within 9 hours.

However St. Luke’s Hospital in Kilkenny, Kerry General Hospital, Letterkenny General Hospital, Portiuncula Hospital in Ballinsloe and St. John’s in Limerick were all named as ‘top performing hospitals in this area, with admittance or discharge rates of 80 per cent of those seen within six hours, and 90 per cent within nine hours.

The hospitals “facing the greatest challenge” in this area after six hours were Tallaght – which had a rate of 39.6 per cent in six hours, and the Mater, with a rate of 47.2 per cent.

Tallaght and Mater were again among the worst when it came to nine hour waits, with 29.9 per cent and 13.6 per cent being discharged or admitted, while Beaumont came in at 17.7 per cent.

Other information released in the report includes:

• Facilities with the highest rates of absenteeism are Cork Dental Hospital, Children’s Sunshine Home and Lourdes Orthopaedic Hospital. Absenteeism was lowest in the medical/dental field, and highest in the area of ‘general support staff’.
• Inpatient discharges were 3.6 per cent higher than the same period last year and nine per cent about the National Service Plan (NSP) target
• Emergency admissions to acute hospitals were 2.7 per cent higher than last year  - 6.9 per cent above NSP target
• There was an increase in activity in elective admissions of 4.7 per cent. This is attributed to hospitals moving more patients through the system in response to emergency department targets as well as delivering increased numbers of elective procedures
• The average length of stay for a patient in March was 8.2 days, with the target for 2012 at 5.8 days.
• 1,156 people attended symptomatic breast cancer services with an urgent appointment in March
• 51.7 per cent of life-threatening 999 calls were responded to within eight minutes, falling below the target of 75 per cent
• The HSE’s latest performance report reveals that it was €145.8 over budget by the end of March. The financial position is due to be discussed at a HSE board meeting tomorrow.
• In the first quarter of 2012 there were 578 referrals made to the elder abuse service, a 45 per cent decline from the same period last year. However, the HSE said that this is likely due to “no dedicated officer currently in post, namely HSE DNE and HSE South”.

“Too many people waiting far too long” – 200,000 on hospital waiting lists>

Read the HSE’s performance report>