5 Samh 2014, 15:45
The Committee of Public Accounts will meet tomorrow to consider a special report of the Comptroller and Auditor General on the management of elective day surgery in Irish hospitals.
5 November 2014
The HSE has estimated that day cases were on average 60 percent less costly to perform than in- patient cases so the PAC will wish to examine trends in day surgery outlined in C&AG Special Report No 83 and where the potential areas for improvement lie.
Officials from the HSE and the Departments of Health and Public Expenditure & Reform will be appearing before the Committee:
Health Service Executive
- Dr Tony O’Connell, National Director, Acute Hospitals
- Dr Aine Carroll, National Director, Clinical Strategy & Programmes
Department of Health
- Ms Tracey Conroy, Assistant Secretary
- Mr Charlie Hardy, Principal Officer, Acute Hospitals
Department of Public Expenditure & Reform
- Mr Paddy Howard
Committee Chairman John McGuinness TD says: “Treating people in Irish hospitals as day patients has very real benefits in terms of freeing up in-patient beds, reducing costs in relation to overnight care and waiting list numbers as well as affording patients themselves the comfort of recovering in their own home. Despite these potential gains, the C&AG special report we will examine tomorrow points to the considerable room for improvement in the management of elective day surgery.
“The PAC will wish to explore the inefficient use of HSE resources in the area. For instance, around half of day surgery units are in use for less than the minimum 12 hour period. It also appears that an increasing number of minor surgeries are being carried out on a day surgery basis, when it would be more economical to carry them out on an outpatient basis or in primary care settings. Committee Members are concerned at HSE estimates indicating that as many as three in five of the non-target day surgery treatments could be carried out in other settings such as a GP surgery or hospital outpatient department at less cost.”
“In 2006, the HSE set a 75 percent day surgery rate for 24 surgical procedures which cover the major specialties in all acute hospitals for these procedures. While the performance rate did rise to 74 percent in 2012, the Committee will wish to examine discrepencies in the rates in individual hospitals, which range from 50 percent to 92 percent. We will also be asking why no day surgery target setting was found during site visits to four hospitals and why only half of the hospitals surveyed monitor the cancellation rates for day surgeries.”
The meeting takes place tomorrow 6 November in Committee Room 1, LH 2000 at 10 am. Public proceedings can be viewed online here.
Committee proceedings can also be viewed on the move, through the Houses of the Oireachtas Smartphone App, available for Apple and Android devices.
Ends
For further information please contact:
Paul Hand,
Communications Unit,
Houses of the Oireachtas,
Leinster House,
Dublin 2
P: +3531 618 4484
M: +353 87 694 9926
paul.hand@oireachtas.ie
Committee Membership
Deputies:
Áine Collins, Fine Gael
Paul J. Connaughton, Fine Gael
Joe Costello, Labour Party
John Deasy, Fine Gael
Robert Dowds, Labour Party
Seán Fleming, Fianna Fáil
Mary Lou McDonald, Sinn Féin
John McGuinness, Fianna Fáil (Chairman)
Eoghan Murphy, Fine Gael
Derek Nolan, Labour Party
Kieran O’Donnell, Fine Gael (Vice-Chairman)
Shane Ross, Independent