A&E price hike sees visits fall

THE NUMBER of people attending hospital accident and emergency departments has fallen by almost 5 per cent following the Government’s decision to increase AE charges.

A report given to the board of the Health Service Executive (HSE) shows that the number of emergency presentations to hospitals decreased by 4.5 per cent in January, compared to the same month in 2008.

In the Budget last October, the Government increased the charge for patients attending public hospital AE departments – from €66 to €100 – if the patient does not have a letter from their GP, or hold a medical card.

The report said the decrease in attendance was observed across all public hospital groups in the country.

“Anecdotal reports suggest that this is due in part to the increase in emergency department charges since January 1st. The drop in attendances was mainly in the lower triage categories, which would explain why the lower numbers did not result in a reduced number of admissions to hospital,” the report stated.

However, despite the nationwide trends, a small number of centres, such as Clonmel, Navan, Letterkenny, Mayo and University College Hospital in Galway, experienced a rise in emergency presentations compared to January of the previous year.

The HSE report, given to the board last week, also revealed that the problem of patients having to wait for lengthy periods on trolleys in AE departments prior to admission got significantly worse over the past year.

“Compared to the same period in 2008, the number of persons awaiting admission, following a decision being taken by the hospital to admit them, rose significantly from 4,430 to 5,341 in January,” the report stated.

The report also said that there were 2,722 cases of patients waiting for more than 12 hours for a bed compared to 1,943 in January 2008.

Emergency admissions overall in January were just 0.1 per cent below the number reported in January 2008.

Later this year, the HSE will begin publishing data on patients’ overall experiences in emergency departments, setting out how long they have to wait from the moment they present to the time they receive a bed, where necessary.

Up to now, figures for waiting times in emergency departments were mainly calculated from the time a decision to admit was taken by a doctor.

Critics have maintained that this data did not fully capture the entire experience of the patient in emergency departments.