Stephen Donnelly
Question:200. Deputy Stephen S. Donnelly asked the Minister for Health if he will report on the expansion of activity based funding for inpatient and day cases to other acute hospitals during 2018. [49682/18]
View answerWednesday, 28 November 2018
Questions (200, 201)
Stephen Donnelly
Question:201. Deputy Stephen S. Donnelly asked the Minister for Health if he will report on the examination of the use of activity based funding for outpatient services. [49683/18]
View answerWritten answers
I propose to take Questions Nos. 200 and 201 together.
An Irish Outpatient classification system (IOCS) has been created based on the Australian Tier 2 Non-admitted and Sub-acute care classification. A pilot project collecting Outpatient data at the patient level has commenced in 10 hospitals. This is the first time that Outpatient data is being collected at individual patient level. The purpose of the pilot project is to determine if the Outpatient data currently in the system is robust enough to implement Activity Based Funding (ABF). This pilot is ongoing. However, the introduction of a new Patient Administration System ( IPIM’s) in a number of hospitals has impacted on the pilot by causing amendments to the mapping of clinics to the classification system.
Currently 39 of 48 public acute hospitals are using ABF for Inpatient and daycase activity. These 39 hospitals account for in excess of 91% of national activity. Feasibility studies will be carried out to determine which, if any, of the remaining hospitals are suitable for inclusion in the ABF model with two more expected to be brought into the model next year. It should be noted that not all acute hospitals may be suitable for ABF and it is the norm in other jurisdictions for smaller hospitals to continue to be funded by way of block grants.