Ireland most efficient at improving mortality rate

IRELAND IS THE most efficient country in the world at reducing mortality per euro spent on health, an international survey has found. A team of researchers at the University of Bournemouth measured GDP spending on health and the impact it had the mortality rates from 1980 to 2005.

The research was originally carried out to examine claims that the NHS was a worse system than the American model of privatised health care, which has been the subject of debate.

The researchers measured the average death rate between 1979 and 1981 and then the death rates between 2003 and 2005.

They then compared them with GDP health expenditure (GDPHE), or the outlay on health spending, to measure the relative efficiency of each system at reducing mortality.

The researchers found the improvement in Ireland’s mortality rate was by far the best in Europe. Comparing like with like, it found 4,951 more people per million of the population were alive in the period 2003-2005 compared to in 1979-1981.

Ireland managed to achieve this with an average increase in GDPHE of 18 per cent. By contrast, the US increased its health spending by more than 50 per cent, yet it only managed to achieve a reduced death rate of 2,498 per million.

In the period studied, Ireland reduced mortality in the 55- to 74-year-old age bracket by 48 per cent, the highest in the 17 countries studied. The death rate fell from 10,374 per million to 5,433 per million.

By contrast, the US reduced mortality rates in the same category by just 28 per cent.

However, the decrease reduced Ireland’s mortality rate to just about average as it had been higher than that of most countries in the early 1980s.

The report is strongly critical of the American privatised health system stating that the idea that it has led to greater efficiencies in health care are simply untrue.

It says the figures reflect the fact that in terms of material wellbeing, the US is among the most unequal societies in the world and most of its people do not have full health insurance cover.

Insurers charge high premiums in order to make up for the few individuals who require very expensive treatments.

It also says the huge outlay that the Americans make on health care is swallowed up in a large bureaucracy that makes the privatised system less and not more efficient.

Life expectancy in Ireland has increased in recent years. It is now 81.6 years for women and 76.8 years for men, according to the latest figures from the Central Statistics Office. That is about average for a developed country. The overall figure has increased by more than six years since 1980 when it was 72.7.

The increase in life expectancy is a universal phenomenon and is down to improving medical interventions, better diets and a fall in the number of smokers.

Ireland ranks 29th in life expectancy in the world, according to the United Nations. The highest life expectancy is in Japan, where the average person lives to 82.6. That is followed closely by Hong Kong (82.2), Iceland (81.8) and Switzerland (81.7). Switzerland has among the highest GDPHE in the world.

The figures would appear to show that the Irish health service compares favourably with the rest of the world, despite how it may be seen at home.

However, the authors have said that the collapse in Government revenues in Ireland is likely to have altered the figures, which were compiled during the boom years.

A spokesman for the Department of Health and Children declined to comment other than to say: “The figures speak for themselves.”

A spokeswoman for the HSE said the survey results related to a time before the organisation was up and running.