Patients waiting over 12 hours in A&E

A SCATHING report on Ireland’s hospital emergency departments by the State’s spending watchdog shows that waiting times rose last year despite assurances by Health Minister Mary Harney that services are improving.

A review of emergency departments by the Comptroller and Auditor General has found that 46% of patients had to wait 12 hours or more in early 2009 for a bed and that the waiting time for admission is unsatisfactory in most cases.

A comparison of the average waiting time for admission covering the first five months of 2009 compared with the same period in 2008 indicated that there had been an increase in the number of patients waiting 12 hours or more.

Ms Harney said the report was useful in highlighting ways in which services to patients at the emergency department can be improved. However, she insisted there had been improvements in recent years and said a number of actions have been taken to improve matters further. Many of the findings are being addressed in the HSE’s National Service Plan for 2010, she said.

In his report, Comptroller John Buckley said restrictive working practices in the diagnostic disciplines, such as X-rays, had to be addressed.

His review of 33 of the country’s 50 acute hospitals also found a considerable differences in capacity and cost per attendance.

The number of patients handled by medical staff across emergency departments in the country ranged from 8 to 31 per day, while there was a major gap in the cost-range per attendance, from €85 to €281 per attendance.

Four emergency departments – in the South Infirmary in Cork, Roscommon, Nenagh and St John’s in Limerick – had unsatisfactory access to diagnostic services.

In response to the report, the HSE said significant progress has been made in emergency departments since the service was established and the average number of patients waiting for admission has been declining since 2006.

The Labour Party said the report was damning. “It is completely unacceptable that four years after Mary Harney’s declaration of a state of emergency in our A&E departments, she has made no progress in getting to grips with the problem at all,” said health spokeswoman Jan O’Sullivan.

Fine Gael Health spokesman, Dr James Reilly, said the report proves things are getting worse.

The minister received the report on November 19, but it was only released yesterday.