12% of patients wait a year to get a bed

TWELVE per cent of patients had to wait over a year to get into hospital, a national healthcare survey published yesterday revealed.

Almost 20% of patients on hospital waiting lists had their admissions rescheduled at least once last year, according to the Irish Society for Quality and Safety in Healthcare (ISQSH) survey. However, the survey also revealed a high level of satisfaction among patients once they got into hospital. More than nine out of 10 patients were satisfied with the overall quality of care and said they would go back to the same hospital again.

The survey examined key areas of in-patient care in 10 acute hospitals nationwide, but the ISQSH could not reveal the names of the hospitals because of a confidentiality clause they signed with them. The 10 hospitals partly financed the research that was carried out by the independent society.

ISQSH president Hilary Coates said that, overall, the results indicated very high levels of satisfaction with care and service received by patients in hospital.

"Most of the areas in which patients feel improvements could be made are not resource intensive, but in the provision of adequate and timely information,” Ms Coates said. However, nearly three-quarters of patients surveyed said they were not given all the information they needed in hospital and complained that they were not given written information about hospital routines. Among other key findings of the National Patient Perception of the Quality of Healthcare Survey 2002 were that over two-thirds of patients in Accident and Emergency units were seen by a doctor within an hour.

Asked why the survey in its conclusions did not give equal weight to the amount of time people had to wait to get a hospital bed and in-patient care, Ms Coates said: “The focus of the survey was to find out what was the perception of patients in hospital of the quality of care they received.”

Ms Coates said that two-thirds of the patients who had to wait over a year to get into hospital said they were admitted at the right time. More than nine out of 10 patients surveyed by the ISQSH said they had their medical and surgical procedures explained adequately to them. However, patients who had surgery were significantly more dissatisfied with their treatment than patients who do not.

On the question of staffing care, the majority of patients felt there were sufficient nurses on duty all the time, but over 40% felt that staff talked in front of them as if they were not there.

The ISQSH is an independent voluntary organisation made up primarily of health care workers. They receive a Department of Health grant every year and the 10 hospitals surveyed paid a contribution towards receiving the results of the survey.