Patients should not have to wait longer than six hours in an accident and emergency unit once a decision to admit them to hospital has been made, according to a report to be published today.
The long awaited report from the A&E taskforce does not, however, set a date for the implementation of this recommendation. But Health Service Executive (HSE) sources said last night a timeframe for its implementation would be set early next year.
The report states no patient should have to wait more than 12 hours in A&E for a bed from this October. It also recommends a target of two weeks be set for the length of time patients have to wait for alternative care once they are fit for discharge from an acute hospital. This recommendation is aimed at getting to grips with the problem of the delayed discharge of older patients from Dublin hospitals in particular, which results in acute beds being inappropriately occupied.
At present, patients can wait months for discharge once they have received all the treatment they require in hospital.
The report makes general recommendations for all hospitals, as well as specific recommendations for up to 15 hospitals that have experienced ongoing A&E overcrowding.
It has, for example, recommended improved diagnostic services such as CT scanning at a number of hospitals as well as better and direct access for GPs to these facilities. It also says a number of A&E units are unfit for the numbers they have to deal with and need urgent attention.
The taskforce was established in March 2006 to try to come up with solutions to end A&E overcrowding. Taskforce members visited hospitals to see the problems themselves.
Prior to addressing the taskforce's first meeting, Minister for Health Mary Harney said the A&E problem had to be treated as a national emergency.
Meanwhile, a review of bed capacity for the HSE, which was conducted by external consultants across 37 hospitals with A&E units between November last year and February this year, is also to be published today.
As already revealed in The Irish Times, it says there is no need to increase the number of acute hospital beds in the State. However, it has concluded there is a shortage of non-acute beds such as those for long-term care.