Vol. 415 No. 3
163 Mr. Allen asked the Minister for Health if she has satisfied herself with the participation of the public hospitals here in the Department of Health's hospital in-patient inquiry system (HIPE); and if she will give details of (a) the number of hospitals involved and (b) the number of public hospitals which are not involved.
164 Mr. Allen asked the Minister for Health if she will make a statement on recent media reports (details supplied) which claim that the Department of Health's hospital in-patient inquiry system has turned out to be a failure and is now resulting in a hit and miss system which is grossly underused; and if she will make a statement on the matter.
I propose to take Questions Nos. 163 and 164 together.
I regard the HIPE scheme as crucial for effective management and planning of health services.
I am satisfied that the quality of data collected is good and this has been confirmed in independent studies.
Of a total of 63 acute public hospitals 49 are currently supplying HIPE data and a further three are being prepared for entry into the scheme and will be supplying data shortly. Perinatal data from the six maternity hospitals are collected separately by the perinatal reporting system and gynaecological data will be collected on HIPE this year. Therefore, only five hospitals, all of which are small units, are not participating and it is planned to bring these hospitals into the scheme in the course of this year.
I recognise that there are problems in relation to the comprehensiveness of coverage. Many hospitals, including some of the large health board regional hospitals, are supplying complete data on all their discharges, which, I am satisfied, clearly demonstrates the technical capability of the scheme to collect and process large volumes of data where there is full co-operation from hospitals. I wish to make it clear that I expect full co-operation from all hospitals in view of the importance of the data in question for future decision-making in our health services.
