Health research: People living in Monaghan, Cavan and other Border counties would have quicker access to A&E services if a formal arrangement for them to use hospitals in Northern Ireland was put in place, research published today has found.
The research is in a report to be launched by the Health Research Board today. A Picture of Health contains the results of 68 research projects, costing €8.25 million, which has been undertaken by some 140 health researchers throughout the Republic.
Conor Teljeur and Dr Alan Kelly of the Small Area Health Research Unit (SAHRU) at the department of public health and primary care at TCD developed a new software tool to help choose the best location for healthcare facilities.
In one application of the method, they examined what would happen if cross-Border access to hospital facilities was formally encouraged between the Republic and Northern Ireland. At present, there is an informal flow of patients across the Border. When the actual travel times of patients from the Republic attending hospitals in the State were compared with travel times if cross-Border access was allowed, it was found that the majority of people living in Leitrim would benefit by an average of 18 minutes less travel time. Access to A&E would also be improved for people living in Border areas of Monaghan, Louth and north Cavan.
Mr Teljeur said there was also a reverse benefit, with some people living in Armagh and Down getting improved access to hospital facilities in Louth. Confirming that the new technique would be useful in any future "Hanly-type" reconfiguration of hospital services, he said: "Currently there is an inequitable distribution of hospital services. The application of modelling techniques makes it possible to identify the optimal distribution of services, irrespective of other considerations, including political ones."
In a separate study, researchers at SAHRU have developed a capitation model of health funding based on actual individual need which, they say, is a more equitable method of allocating resources. Using the new system they estimate that the former Eastern Health Board region would receive about 4 per cent less funding while the former Western Health Board area would see its funding rise by about 2 per cent.
"There is a perfect opportunity now, in view of the recent move to the HSE from old health board structures, to change from a historical allocation of resources to regions, which it is widely acknowledged leads to inefficiencies and inequities, to a more equitable individually based resource model," Dr Kelly, director of SAHRU, said.
Meanwhile, a study of more than 1,100 mothers found that a mother's self-rated health is influenced by both her parents and her partner's socio-economic circumstances.
The HRB unit for health status and health gain, staffed by researchers from the National University of Ireland, Galway and led by Prof Cecily Kelleher, head of the school of public health and population science at University College Dublin is three years into a five-year study of how social disadvantage affects health. According to Prof Kelleher, if a mother's parents were educated to third level, she is eight times more likely to rate her health as very good or excellent compared with a woman whose parents left formal education after primary school.
A Picture of Health, page 3