Good News: Hygiene Reports
The last hygiene report (Dec 2008) shows improvement in all of the Northside Hospitals except the Rotunda. Cappagh is now the most hygienic hospital in the country and the only one rated “Very Good”. Temple Street also made huge strides and upped upped it’s rating to good, alongside Beaumont. While the Mater made big improvements, it is still only rated “fair” because of a poor rating on some core tests concerning the physical facilities (showers, layout etc.) and gaps in the hygiene plan.

6,000 more could be treated in Northside Hospitals
One of the major causes of long waiting at the Northside Hospitals is a lack of convalescent facilities. Patients have no where to go after their acute stage of care is complete, so their discharge is delayed.
Across the Northside 164 beds are occupied all year round by patients who could be discharged. This is equivalent to a small hospital being closed. Over 6,000 more in-patients would be treated if these beds were released. This would wipe out the entire waiting lists of all three hospitals.
The problem of delayed discharge is 50% greater on the Northside. As a result long waits have become endemic.

1. Waiting for Operations

 The target that no patient would have to wait more than 6 months for treatment is not being met by any of the Dublin Hospitals, although St. James’s is almost there. On the Northside the Mater has the biggest problem where over a quarter of patients had an excessive wait.
 The number waiting for medical and surgical procedures on the Northside increased by 9% (up to 4358) in the past year. By contrast on the Southside the number waiting fell by 25%. The deterioration is due to problems in the Mater (waiting list up 45%), Temple Street (up by 56%), and Connolly (up by 165%).

2. Accident and Emergency

Although the HSE has set a target that no one should wait longer than 6 hours for access to A & E, no Hospital in Dublin has reached this. Beaumont fared worst where only 10% of patients were treated on time, and St. James’s was best where over three times as many were seen on time.
For a long time now the Northside Hospitals Beaumont, The Mater and Connolly, have had the greatest problems in dealing with the A & E case load. For example, in a typical week in spring, when the system is not under the greatest strain, 80 patients had to wait over 12 hours, and 10 had to wait over 24 hours. These 3 hospitals make up nearly half of all those who have to wait over 12 hours in the entire country.

3. Consultants:
The HSE have set a target of 90 days wait to see a consultant but only St. Vincent’s and the Mater are achieving it. Beaumont has an average wait of 7 months, more than 4 times the wait at St. Vincent’s. Only Tallaght is worse. Some specialities have much longer waiting times. Word count: 52

Private Hospital in Beaumont:
Beacon, a 170 bed private hospital on the grounds of Beaumont Hospital, is still on course to be built, despite the removal of the tax relief for building private. Beacon has been exempted because it is at an “advanced stage” of planning.
• Beacon say they can raise the required capital.
• It will have 6 operating Theatres, a 24-hour assessment unit, but no A&E, and will employ 504 staff.
• The Government will pay 30% of the €300m building but will only get a 10% reduction on the price of any services it sources there.

FG: Universal Health Care:
Fine Gael is determined to reform the whole way in which health services are delivered and funded so that:
• Everyone is treated equally
• Providers are paid according to their performance
This will be a massive change and will end the discrimination between Public and Private. A patient’s need will dictate the money made available. It will be delivered by insuring everyone for primary hospital care. Everyone will have the same basic insurance package giving them regular health checks, free access to GP care, to consultants, and to treatment. It is modelled on the Dutch system. We will start by linking the hospital’s budget to results: patients treated and meeting targets. Then we will establish a central buyer for services for public patients before finally merging this buyer into an insurance model side by side with VHI etc.