A NUMBER of consultants at Beaumont Hospital are understood to have threatened legal action against the Department of Health if it presses ahead with plans to publish a statistical report on healthcare outcomes in its current form.
The department had planned to publish a report on “Health Care Quality Indictors in the Irish Health System” several weeks ago. However, an official launch of the study was postponed at the last minute.
The purpose of the report was to examine the Hospital Inpatient Enquiry (Hipe) system as a potential source of data to monitor quality outcomes in various hospitals around the country. However, it appears some of the original data had been inputted incorrectly in some hospitals.
This produced statistical results for quality outcomes in some specialities which appeared out of line with those recorded for others.
However, informed sources said last night that this could not be interpreted as implying differences in the quality of care between hospitals.
Sources said the report made clear that unless and until the quality of the data was improved, it could not support measurement of quality of care.
Sources said the report made a number of recommendations to achieve this.
It is understood the dispute with the department arose over the findings in the draft report relating to deaths from acute myocardial infarction at Beaumont Hospital.
Hospital officials and department representatives are to discuss the matter next week, the department said.