75-84 age group use 20% of all bed days

MORE than one in five bed days in Irish hospitals are being used by patients aged between 75 and 84, despite the group accounting for just one in 10 of total patient numbers.

Latest figures on the state of the health service show that there continues to be a significant difference between the usage of hospitals by certain groups in society.

According to the figures, detailed in the hospital in-patients enquiry (HIPE) study for 2008 conducted by the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), the 55-64 year age group had the highest patient volume of any cohort in the country in 2008, at 20.4%.