Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 2 May 2024
30. Deputy Gino Kenny asked the Minister for Health if he is aware that an organisation (details supplied) has said the latest Department of Health/HSE-commissioned IGEES report into the public hospital system is about saving money rather than patient safety and investing in services; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19870/24]
Amharc ar fhreagraHealthcare productivity is about maximising the benefits to the public from the expenditure authorised by the Oireachtas. The more productive we are, the more patients we treat, the less time they have to wait and the better outcomes we can achieve.
The recent IGEES publication from the Department “Hospital Performance: An Examination of Trends in Activity, Expenditure and Workforce in Publicly Funded Acute Hospitals in Ireland” shows how activity in hospitals has responded to increased funding and increases in workforce and capacity between 2016 and 2022. The paper directly facilitates the work of the Productivity Taskforce to identify where, and how, productivity can be improved within the health service. In particular, the paper establishes a baseline for acute care productivity, and highlights where activity improvements are possible in the health system based on a “whole-of-site” approach.
The paper is already guiding the work of the Productivity Taskforce in establishing areas where intervention is possible to improve the efficiency, effectiveness and equity of service delivery. Actions to be taken are outlined fully in the Productivity and Savings Taskforce Action Plan. These include the creation of a condensed set of acute key performance indicators to better understand where progress is being made. In the future, we will prioritise additional investment that are genuinely activity enhancing through the targeted elimination bottlenecks - in ICT, diagnostics, theatre availability, bed capacity and staffing. In doing so, we will improve patient outcomes and free up resources for the treatment of patients in the most appropriate clinical setting.
