Community patient treatment plan ‘could save €100m a year’
If the project was replicated nationally, it could potentially shave €100m off the annual healthcare budget, the study’s authors claim.
Carried out by Mallow Primary Healthcare Centre (MPHC) in conjunction with the HSE, the study tracked 71 high-risk patients over the age of 70 after identifying their healthcare needs. The patients were identified from more than 1,100 screened in MPHC.
Dr David Molony, one of 21 GPs at MPHC, said they were able to save on 54% of admissions to hospital by virtue of a series of interventions.
“For example, some interventions were as simple as sending home helps to patients at risk of mixing up medication,” he said.
“There was a huge amount of common sense involved.”
Dr Molony said one- quarter of those identified as high risk in the study were not previously known to the public health nurses, who were now in a position to assist these patients. It meant help could be more targeted.
If the study was rolled out nationally, it could save up to €100m and reduce the number of hospital bed days by 1,000 per annum, he said.
Dr Molony said the 54% reduction in admission rates was particularly high and that a national reduction rate was likely to be closer to 30%.
The study’s findings dovetail with what is envisaged in the National Primary Care Strategy, which saw a much bigger role for primary care in the provision of healthcare than is currently the case.
Dr Molony said the findings demonstrate that, by failing to implement the National Primary Care Strategy, “we are failing to unblock hospitals with patients who really shouldn’t be there at all”.
He said it also confirmed that the State “is losing vast sums of money each year by not doing so”.
The research, which received the public health project of the year award at the Irish Healthcare Awards last week, showed the benefits of having access to a primary care team.
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