Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 28 June 2016
399. Deputy Róisín Shortall asked the Minister for Health the action he is taking on foot of the findings in his Department's report, National Healthcare Quality Reporting System, in respect of those hospitals that have higher-than-expected death rates; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18116/16]
View answer450. Deputy Billy Kelleher asked the Minister for Health his plans to respond to the second annual report of the National Healthcare Quality Reporting System; the actions he will take to address the higher-than-normal deaths in certain hospitals; the discussions he has had with the Health Service Executive regarding this; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18520/16]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 399 and 450 together.
The purpose of the annual National Healthcare Quality Reporting System (NHQRS) Report is to use easily accessible information to develop a better understanding of whole health system performance. The NHQRS was established to provide a broad overall picture of the quality of our health services. It is intended to demonstrate to individual hospitals and other health service providers the importance of examining their own data in order to improve the services they provide. It must however, be understood that the performance and quality of a service cannot be measured by one indicator alone. This is why the NHQRS presents an analysis of a range of indicators that reflect different parts of the services and allows progress and priorities in the health system to be identified. The NHQRS will help to inform many improvements in service outcomes for patients.
The information will inform my priorities as Minister for Health, it will provide intelligence and information for the 10 Year Plan for Health and I hope the Health Committee will avail of the opportunity to be briefed on this. It will also inform my Department's Statement of Strategy.
The Second annual NHQRS Report was published last Thursday 16th June. It is very encouraging to see improvements in many areas, for example in the areas of immunisation, uptake of cancer screening and survival rates for patients with breast and colorectal cancer which are improving at a rate faster than most other European countries in the OECD. One example of how this information will be used is to ensure that the cancer indicators feed into the new Cancer Strategy currently being drawn up by my Department. Similarly, the figures for stroke patients, indicate over 80% are admitted to hospitals with a designated stroke unit which, again, is to the forefront of other OECD countries.
I recognise that there are areas identified where further room for improvement exists. In particular, considerable variation can be seen between counties in rates of hospitalisation for common chronic diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), asthma, diabetes and heart failure. Identifying this variation is a first step to addressing the reasons why this variation exists and to improving it. For example, the information on COPD is already informing requirements in Primary Care and the National Clinical Effectiveness Committee (NCEC) COPD Guideline being developed by the HSE Clinical Programme for the management of this disease.
