Ambitious hospital targets set

A COMMITMENT to discharge or admit 95% of all casualty attendees at Galway University Hospitals within six hours of registration by the end of the year is just one of the ambitious targets set by hospital chiefs under the 2013 Service Plan.

Long waiting times in the emergency department at Galway University Hospitals was a big bone of contention for nursing unions and public representatives in 2012.

Hospital managers have now committed to introducing new measures that will ensure all patients who are admitted through the emergency department will be discharged or admitted within nine hours of registration.

They have also pledged that 95% of all new medical patients attending the Acute Medical Unit (AMU) are to spend less than six hours from emergency department registration to AMU departure.

The HSE has been subjected to stinging criticism over the long waiting times on outpatient waiting lists, where over 33,000 public patients still haven’t received treatment in a variety of specialities. Under the 2013 Service Plan, hospital managers have promised that no person should be waiting longer than 52 weeks for an appointment.

If all the manager’s plans come to fruition, no adult should be waiting longer than eight months for an elective inpatient or day care procedure, while no child should be waiting longer than 20 weeks for an elective procedure. It is also hoped that no patient will be waiting longer than 13 weeks for an endoscopy procedure.
Galway and Roscommon University Hospitals’ Group chief executive officer, Bill Maher stressed the key priorities for the group in 2012 were to continue to improve the quality of care provided, while enhancing accessibility to hospital services and improving the morale of staff.

“These priorities were set in the context of reducing our cost base and improving our overall financial performance. They were also set in the context of a growing demand for health services generally and for hospital services, in particular, as well as the loss of key personnel from the Pension Protected Retirement Scheme.

“The group was successful in achieving its key priorities in 2012, including significant progress in maximisation of its resources through better integration, significant improvement in trolley waits, achieving stringent Patient Target List (PTL) targets, establishing governance arrangements, real engagement with clinical care programmes and integrating the new group of hospitals,” he stated.

The 2013 Service Plan also outlined the targeted levels of patient activity for the coming year, which includes the care of 50,953 inpatients, 90,377 day cases, 89,784 emergency department presentations, 5,441 births, 291,532 outpatients and 5,440 presentations to the Urgent Care Centre.

Mr Maher also highlighted that the emergency department at University Hospital Galway has now become the busiest in Ireland annually.

“Our priorities in 2013 are to improve access to services for patients and this means working on admission times from the emergency departments, maintaining the inpatients’ waiting time targets, which includes a reduction to eight months wait time for adults and meeting the Department of Health’s Special Delivery Unit outpatient waiting time target, which is that no patient should wait longer than 12 months by the end of November,” he explained.

“We plan to build on the progress made in 2012 by maximising all the resources of the group and by removing duplication of services, if necessary. We will look to fully implement the Small Hospitals Framework and play to the strengths of each of the hospitals in the group.

“In this way, we can allow each hospital to specialise in certain services and by removing duplication of services, we can keep costs down, which will be essential in the current economic climate,” he added.