Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 20 September 2017
436. Deputy Micheál Martin asked the Minister for Health his views on the reported 54% reduction in the number of elective surgeries in the past four years and in particular the cancellation of 41,000 elective surgeries in 2016; the actions that are being taken to address the matter; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39421/17]
View answerOver recent years activity in acute hospitals has increased, with the total number of discharges of inpatients and daycases rising around 34% between 2006 and 2015. Last year alone there was a 4% increase in inpatient and daycase activity over 2015, and in 2016 1.69 million patients received inpatient or daycase treatment in our hospitals, an increase of almost 40,000 on the previous year.
It is important to recognise that, in order to improve efficiency in our hospital system, over the last number of years there has been a greater emphasis on increasing the number of procedures, previously carried out as inpatient procedures, which are now carried out on a daycase basis. Consequently, when comparing hospital elective activity for 2012 with 2016, it can be seen that, while inpatient elective discharges decreased, daycase discharges have increased.
In fact, taken together, elective inpatient discharges and daycase discharges increased from 1.02m in 2012 to 1.15m in 2016. HSE data for 2016 show that while elective inpatient discharges had reduced by 3.5% in comparison with the same period in 2015, daycase discharges increased by 3.1%. It is important to remember that this is the context of ever-growing demand with increased attendances at EDs, including by older persons.
Cancellation of elective procedures can occur for a variety of exceptional reasons including cancellations because a bed or the clinical team are not available, cancellations by the patient or because the patient may not be fit for surgery at the time.
Maintaining scheduled care access for all patients and managing emergency demand at times is challenging, however all efforts are made to limit cancellations particularly for clinically urgent procedures.
Based on data provided by the NTPF, collated from reports by hospitals, approximately 3,400 elective procedures, on average, are cancelled per month. In 2016, typically in a month, there were approximately 53,000 admissions to acute hospitals on a daycase and an inpatient basis.
It is essential that hospitals continue to improve how they manage, and balance, the demand for emergency care with the planning of elective procedures, to minimise the impact on patients. In addition, it is important that the HSE continues to improve its processes to minimise the number sessions lost when patients cancel or do not attend for their procedures.
The Department of Health has commenced a Health Service Capacity review in line with the Programme for Government commitment, the findings of which are due to be published before the end of the year.
