HSE pledges 12-hour A&E waiting times

The Health Service Executive has pledged to introduce a target of 12-hour waiting times for A&E patients from October.

The move comes in the wake of a report which found that at least seven A&E departments across the State were unfit for the numbers they had to deal with and required urgent attention.

In a statement this afternoon, the HSE said: "The basis for the timing of this decision is to take account of the timescales for key infrastructural developments aimed at enabling improvements in emergency departments including the construction and commissioning of 700 additional public long stay beds and the establishment of additional acute medical admissions units (AMAUs)".

Earlier a HSE report identified the A&E departments in the Mater and Beaumont in Dublin, the Mercy Hospital in Cork, Wexford General Hospital, Cavan General Hospital, Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda, Letterkenny General Hospital as being "unfit for that purpose".

The report by the Emergency Department (ED) taskforce found that the majority of hospitals examined are running at 95 per cent capacity with a number operating at close to 100 per cent.

This is contrary to international best practice which suggests that optimum level in A&E departments should be around 85 per cent, the report notes.

The study - which was conducted by PA Consulting Group and the Balance of Care Group on behalf of the taskforce - visited 37 hospitals nationwide and found that 13 per cent of patients were admitted needlessly.  It also found 39 per cent of patients could have been treated elsewhere.

The report said that in a number of hospitals there were insufficient decision-makers within the A&E departments to enable effective management of patients prior to admission.

It said that patients should not have to wait longer than six hours in an accident and emergency units once a decision to admit them to hospital has been made.

It recommended that improved diagnostic services such as CT scanning as well as better and direct access for GPs to these facilities would significantly improve services.

It also suggested the establishment of fast track clinics to help reduce the volumes and waiting times in A&E departments.

The taskforce was established in March 2006 to try to come up with solutions to end A&E overcrowding.

"It is not the complex nature of the patient condition or the fact that the patient is old or lives alone, but the way local health systems are configured to treat and care for that patient that results in inappropriate occupancy of an acute bed.," HSE official Dr Marie Laffoy said.

"A broad range of community and home-based care options are needed to ensure patients are placed in the most appropriate setting." Meanwhile Sinn Fein's health spokesman Caoimhghin O Caolain said the A&E revelation was a direct result of the Government's failure to invest in public healthcare.

"The Emergency Department Taskforce Report published today is an indictment of former Health Minister Mary Harney and her privatisation agenda. "Her failure to invest properly in public healthcare has led to the situation outlined today by this report in which it says at least seven of our Accident and Emergency Departments are unfit for their purpose," he said.

The Irish Association for Emergency Medicine (IAEM) while criticising the delay in the reports publication welcomed the report's recommendations and called on the HSE to implement them as soon as possible.

"Now that the report has been published, it is time for the HSE to publish a timetable for rapidly implementing the Report's recommendations so that when patients attend an Emergency Department they can expect to receive a first class service in a timely fashion," the IAEM said in a statement.