Data analysis: Major hospitals outside Dublin admit a significantly higher percentage of patients as elective cases compared with their counterparts in the capital. Dr Muiris Houston, Medical Correspondent writes
A study of the latest hospital activity data shows that almost 40 per cent of patients admitted to University College Hospital Galway do so as non-emergencies.
This compares with St James's and the Mater Hospitals in Dublin where just 21 per cent and 23 per cent of admissions are categorised as elective.
Based on figures from the Department of Health showing hospital activity levels between January and December 2003, the analysis suggests that the university hospitals in Cork and Galway are better able to balance the demand for elective and emergency admissions than university hospitals in Dublin.
Thirty eight per cent of admissions to Cork University Hospital last year were of elective cases.
An elective admission is one where a patient is taken into hospital for a surgical procedure or for a planned treatment such as chemotherapy.
Accident and emergency admissions occur via the hospital's casualty department and involve an urgent illness, which if left untreated, could be life-threatening. The analysis assumes that each hospital defines elective admissions in a similar manner.
A possible explanation for the differences in elective admission rates between university hospitals in Dublin and those outside the capital is the availability of five-day beds in Cork and Galway. Cork University Hospital has 35 designated five-day beds while Galway has 40 such beds, which are associated with higher levels of efficiency.
However, a senior consultant based outside Dublin said the figures suggest the second phase of the Hanly investigation into hospital services should closely examine activity levels in both Cork and Galway.
"What it suggests to me is that there are efficiencies in the major units outside Dublin which Hanly and his committee should look at before they come up with a final reconfiguration of hospitals in the State," he said.
The Hanly report, which specifically examined services in the Mid-Western Health Board and the Northern Area Health Board, also recommended that acute hospital services be focused on a core spine of hospitals throughout the Republic.
It has been suggested that hospitals with less than 10,000 admissions per annum will not be viable as either "super-regional" hospitals or general hospitals in a reorganised health service. According to the latest statistics, Cashel Hospital, Co Tipperary, Monaghan General Hospital and Bantry Hospital, Co Cork, with annual admissions in the region of 3,000 patients, would not survive in their present form.
In the Western Health Board, Roscommon Hospital, with 4,470 admissions each year, would lose out. Nenagh Hospital and Ennis Hospital in the Mid Western Health Board, with between 4,500 and 5,000 admissions would not survive. In the Southern Health Board, Mallow Hospital admitted 4,443 patients last year, and its future would also be in doubt.