HSE performance review fails to find one “good’ hospital

NOT one out of 29 major hospitals has turned in a good performance so far this year, according to a Health Service Executive efficiency rating programme.

The majority are graded “amber” or “average” with “room for improvement” under the Healthstat grading system.

In addition, two hospitals – Mayo General and Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda – are branded “red” or “unsatisfactory, requiring urgent attention”. Both failed to improve on their January rating.

However, Cork University Hospital (CUH) and University College Hospital Galway (UCHG) shed their “red” rating from last month and are now average performers.

Areas of improvement for CUH included staying within its staff ceiling after breaching it in January, improving its average length of in-patient stay and keeping to its target of consultants spending 80% of their time with public patients.

In UCHG, waiting times for patients referred by consultants for physiotherapy moved closer to the target of being seen within 70 days. There was also a fall in the percentage of staff hours lost due to absenteeism. However, absenteeism continues to be a major problem – more than two-thirds of hospitals need to tackle the issue urgently.

Just three hospitals did well in this regard – the South Infirmary Victoria University Hospital in Cork, St Colmcille’s Hospital in Loughlinstown and St James’s Hospital, Dublin – meaning they stayed within the HSE target of 3.5% or less total absenteeism.

A total of 17 hospitals breached their staff ceiling. Kerry General was the worst offender at 10% above its limit. In addition to CUH, three other hospitals kept within their ceiling – Connolly Hospital in Blanchardstown, Mallow General and Mercy University Hospital.

There was little improvement overall in the number of patients failing to show for appointments at outpatient clinics. This should be seen within the context of waiting times of up to 600 days at some clinics against a target of 90 days.

Mark Turner, HSE assistant national director of decision support and the architect of HealthStat, said it was not surprising so many hospitals failed to meet absenteeism and financial targets.

“We are very tough on both absenteeism and finance. We set tough targets. It is in our interest to get hospitals to strive towards these targets.”

Mr Turner predicted hospitals would improve in these areas as the year progresses and improvements would also be made in adhering to staff ceilings.