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OVER 70% OF patients have said they waited more than six hours to be seen by a doctor when they presented to an emergency department.
The results of the first ever National Patient Experience Survey shows that long waiting times, which have been linked with negative health outcomes, continue to be a problem in Irish hospitals.
Currently, the HSE target is for patients to be seen by a doctor within six hours.
Apart from waiting times, communication appears to be a key area of concern.
Patients also found fault with the level of information they received before being discharged from hospital or being transferred between facilities.
Discharged from hospital
Many patients complained about being sent home from hospital without proper advice on the side effects of medication or their surgery.
The survey found that some patients said that they could not find a member of hospital staff to talk to about their worries and fears upon leaving hospital.
A total of 3,724 people (32%) reported that they were not told about the potential side effects of medication. Only 5.3 out of ten patients said they were given written or printed information about what they should or should not do after leaving hospital.
Patients said that doctors did not have enough time to discuss their care and treatment.
In addition, many patients also said that their family did not have sufficient opportunities to talk to a doctor while they were in hospital.
The survey found that several patients did not feel involved in the decisions about
their care and treatment, despite the fact that patient involvement is a fundamental
principle of patient-centred care.
The survey, a partnership between HIQA, the HSE and the Department of Health, took place during the month of May. Almost 27,000 patients discharged from a public acute hospital throughout Ireland took part in the study.
It is the largest single survey of the healthcare system in Ireland and received a 51% response rate.
This is the first time a survey of this kind has been conducted. The information will be used as a baseline in order to track progress of patients over the next number of years.
Key areas identified as areas of good experience in the health service include 82% of patients stating that they were always treated with respect and dignity throughout their hospital stay.
Of patients surveyed, 83% said they have confidence and trust in hospital staff.
Most patients, 54%, rated their experience of admission to hospital as very good.
Speaking at the launch, Minister for Health Simon Harris said the findings of the survey are very encouraging in a number of respects.
He said these figures will not be left languishing on a shelf somewhere, and committed to using them to make improvements in the system.
Harris said the survey would be repeated next year, and it would also be expanded to include maternity services.
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6 hours you’d be doing well
@neo1: think they misjudged it, you’re lucky to be seen by triage in that time.
@Ray James Franco Browne:
Indeed or to have found a parking spot, a wait up to 13 hours in Tallaght hospital in our case.
@neo1: spent 11 and 14 hours in A&E in Tralee “University” hospital a few yrs back. Probably towards the extreme end(I hope) , most likely worse now.
If people used accident and emergencies for accident and emergencies then this would reduce dramatically, having a sore leg and not feeling well then go to the doctor if something is broken, heavily bleeding or you are fantastically sick then it’s the A&E for you
@Fergus Sheahan: phoned up the out of ours doctor and was told to go to the hospital as my daughter would need to see a plastic surgeon. The waiting time was 8 hours. The out of hours doctor was a 3 hour wait. Funny thing though he was very indecisive, had little English and wasn’t that helpful but he did glue the 4cm gash to her head. He was really rough and He had no beside manner (due to lack of English?) he was wearing jeans and high tops, which I found odd as in my 37 years I’ve never been treated by a doctor dressed so casual.
Her head is healing and she will have a scar. But I can’t say an 8 hour wait in a&e would have better results.
@Jayo Breathneach: I’m sure it would but that eats into time too, If you go to the A&E today at least half the people there have no business in A&E and they clog the system up, no amount of money the Government throw at the HSE will change that. People with nothing better to do clog up the system for those in need
@Lily: I was at an out of hours doctor for stitches and broken nose a few years back and it did have more in common with a vet than a doctors office! I had gone to the hospital first but the wait time was 6 hours. this wasn’t the hospitals fault or the HSE the A&E was full of people that were walking around and you wouldn’t know what was wrong with them. People in an A&E should be in pain or sick but we don’t use it correctly…I had a crooked nose now so maybe i should have waited the 6 hours!
@Fergus Sheahan: a useful survey would be asking if they went for primary care first. Amongst other questions
@Fergus Sheahan: Agreed and medication comes with paper telling you of all the pitfalls of the medication you are taking. If you have a prescription the pharmacist in telling you what is what.
@Fergus Sheahan: my same girl broke her nose years ago and we went to a small a&e they did an X-ray and said it was fine 3 days later I get a letter to say an senior consultant saw the X-ray and it was broken and booked her in for corrective surgery for 1.5 weeks latter.
@Fergus Sheahan: For minor breaks, go to a minor injury clinic! 2016, during the really icy week that january, i broke my wrist on the friday. all A&Es in cork had shut by then (8.20am) because of a 24hr backlog due to the number of injuries from ice.. i got sent to the mercy urgent care centre on the north side, and it was a fantastic experience.
i was expecting to be there well into the evening, after getting there around midday (gp appointment at 10.30, earliest they had, then stopped in for food with my dad, and to book a taxi to the centre as we didn’t know where it was). i was in and out in an hour and a half! cast and x-rays sorted. they had a huge number of people going through, but because they were only focusing on minor stuff, the wait wasn’t as bad!
i’d go again for a similar problem, personally!
Imagine that.
When you vote a right wing party into power that focuses on cutting spending on healthcare, the quality of our healthcare system suffers.
@Franklin Roosevelt:
Yeah, just look at Venezuela, the dream is there for the taking if we would only vote for SF and Solidarity
@Nick Allen: Venezuela has a top marginal rate of tax of 34%.
I assume you were trying to have a dig at socialism there? Poor attempt, 1/10.
Anyway, how’s that amazing capitalism working out over in India?
They’ve been trying that for many centuries at this stage. I believe last time I read it, 58% of the population live on less than $3.10 a day.
Calcutta is a wonderful capitalist country, you should visit it sometime :)
FG are not right wing they are to the left of British Labour party on most issues……..Only HSE managers believe more billions to the HSE will give better health service….HSE at present get €14 billion a year…When it got a billion more several years ago health service was worse
@Franklin Roosevelt:
I didn’t know there was a country called Calcutta, I must check it out.
You do realise that quoting how much people live on a day is meaningless without also saying the average cost of living???
@Nick Allen: Calcutta is a city in a capitalist country that I mentioned.
It may be one of the most disease infested, poverty stricken cities on the planet.
The free market hasn’t done a damn thing for them.
Or would you prefer I talk about a capitalist state in the richest country in the history of the world?
“Alabama has the worst poverty in the developed world, says UN official”
http://www.newsweek.com/alabama-un-poverty-environmental-racism-743601
@Franklin Roosevelt: the same government that has high levies on private health insurance and gives medical cards and free care to almost 40% of the country. That one?
@Nick Allen: the choice is not neo liberal FFG or Venezuela. How about virtually every continental country?
So, 6 hour wait is becoming best practice.
Appalling management.
Guarantee, managers or their families don’t wait that long.
Worst in the EU….
@Thomas Blackcat: Based on what? Your sources please.
@Philip Kavanagh: our health system has been rated 31 of 32 developed countries ahead of Bulgaria. An OECD study I believe.
Where is the money being spent they get more and more money every year – is it spent on managers ?
@Annmoore: I’m a department manager in the HSE. Non clinical. I have sixty persons working for me on 15% less than I was in 2009. If you do find out what managers are getting it give me a shout!!!.
@Paul Murphy: What we do know about managers in the HSE is that manage to gift office and clinical space in PUBLIC hospitals for FREE or very nominal rent to private profit making health insurance companies. WTF?
UNFORTUNATLY REAL; PEOPLE ARE DYING ON WAITING LIST,
Not good enough for the people of Ireland.
The government should be ashamed and embarrassed
@Disgruntled Doctor: successive governments should be ashamed and embarrassed. The opposition should be ashamed and embarrassed for not insisting upon an urgent cross-party strategy for addressing the A&E crisis. What is required to get a satisfactory level of throughput in A&E departments? Whatever is blocking the solution, remove it.
I dislocated my thumb.went to and e in tralee uni hospital.was there for 12.they then xrayed my thumb and tried to push it back in.didnt work so I was finished by 1.10 with an app to see a specialist next morning.staff were all amazing.not on private insurance-have a medical card.where would you get that level of care and efficiency?
@Ciara O Connor:
Tralee ?
@Ciara O Connor: in tralee around 12
@Nick Allen: I know yeah-I kid you not.must have caught them on a good day
@Ciara O Connor: you clearly did. I had a wait of 11 + hrs on the two occasions I was there. After that I fell and split my lip. Gp wouldn’t stitch it as it was a “complex” wound. Told me to go to Tralee…got a tube of super glue and did it myself.
Attended the brand new A&E in University Hospital Limerick recently with a family member with a suspected clot. Managed to see a doctor after 7 hours. Took a further 2 hours to receive treatment and get discharged. So demoralising!
If only one could triage remotely (by video-call or phone- call) and be given a time to turn up to the ED. Many would sooner convalesce at home than in a waiting area.
This wouldn’t be suitable for every scenario or ailment, but that’s the point. Up to Triage we’re treating all ailments as equals, which plainly they are not.
I know for certain that, if in a situation that required attendance to ED, if sooner wait at home knowing that I will definitely be seen to when I do present at my allocated time-slot, rather than sitting in a busy/noisy/inhospitable waiting area or within a busy ED where there’s loads of commotion and no idea at all as to when I’ll be seen.
It should be free if your waiting more than 2 hours. Some hospitals have shorter or longer wait times than others, and resources should be better utilized with regards waiting times.
When assessed and removed by ambulance those emergencies get priority, After that the urgent cases are prioritised, I have to say that in my experience those waiting 6 hours to see a doctor are not in a life threatening situation, those that are are seen immediately.
On one occasion (when referred by a GP) the triage nurse came out and explained that while things did not look busy outside inside they were dealing with three life threatening emergencies.
Unfortunately we have the “walking wounded” and the “gp referred” and the true emergencies in the same queue and system and therefore there will always be delays in the system.
That said however, if the backlog could be cleared it should remain cleared unless there are insufficient resources….
have your say