Thomas Gould
Question:124. Deputy Thomas Gould asked the Minister for Health the average wait time in July 2022 in the emergency department of each of the Cork hospitals. [37506/22]
View answerTuesday, 12 July 2022
Questions (124)
Written answers
The primary metric for monitoring Emergency Department (ED) Wait Times is “Patient Experience Time” (PET). In the tables for Cork University Hospital and Mercy University Hospital enclosed, the Median ED PETs by age cohort for the month of June 2022 as per the available date are listed. These median PETs account for both patients that are subsequently admitted from the ED to a ward and those that are discharged. Please note that we do not have data for July 2022 as requested at this stage.
To calculate the average PET across all age cohorts, a weighted average PET for June 2022 has been calculated using the total ED attendances for each age cohort. For CUH it is 7.94 hours, and for MUH it is 7.01 hours. These averages represent a marked improvement over the May 2022 average of 10.60 hours and 9.20 hours respectively, however, it is important to note that the June PETs are currently provisional pending national validation.
The HSE advised that May 2022 was a challenging month for Cork Hospitals with regard to ED wait times and significant work has been undertaken by the Hospitals in conjunction with the South/South West Hospital Group to address the situation. This has involved a cooperation with Cork/Kerry Community Healthcare to improve discharging and promote alternative care pathways, and engagement with the National Ambulance Service to in relation to the volume of ambulances presenting to the two Cork Emergency departments.