Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 2 June 2005
121 Mr. Bruton asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Health and Children the number of inpatient admissions in hospital in 2003, 2004 and to date in 2005; the number of day cases; and the total inpatient and day care capacity in each year. [18895/05]
View answer123 Mr. Bruton asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Health and Children the number of accident and emergency attendances and of out patient attendances in 2003, 2004 and to date in 2005. [18897/05]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 121 and 123 together.
The information requested by the Deputy is provided in the following table:
|
2003 |
2004 |
January to March 2005 |
|
|
In-Patient Admissions |
567,303 |
575,902 |
140,224 |
|
Day Cases |
448,676 |
484,090 |
119,355 |
|
In-Patient Beds Available |
12,299 |
12,331 |
12,444 |
|
Day Beds Available |
909 |
1,081 |
1,142 |
|
A&E Attendances |
1,211,071 |
1,240,241 |
295,137 |
|
Out-Patient Attendances |
2,275,202 |
2,379,751 |
613,991 |
Notes:
(i) Data for 2004 and 2005 are provisional.
(ii) ‘Beds Available' refers to the average number of beds available for use over the period taking beds that were temporarily closed or opened into account.
Source: Integrated Management Returns, Department of Health and Children.
122 Mr. Bruton asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Health and Children the number of inpatient procedures in hospitals here in each of the years 1998 and to date in 2005; and the estimated cost of an inpatient procedure in the same years. [18896/05]
View answerThe information requested by the Deputy is set out in the following table. The activity figures refer to total procedures carried out on an inpatient basis to patients discharged in each of the specified years from 1998 to 2004, inclusive, from all publicly funded acute hospitals. Day cases are not included. Data for 2005 is not yet available. The data are derived from the hospital inpatient inquiry, HIPE, system. The figures indicate that the numbers of recorded inpatient procedures carried out in publicly funded acute hospitals have more than doubled since 1998. It should be noted that approximately 50% of the increase between 2001 and 2002 can be attributed to a provision in the HIPE system introduced in 2002 to allow recording of up to ten procedures compared with a maximum of four for data prior to 2002.
As indicated, day case work, much of which is procedure-based, is not included in the table. There has been a 180% increase in day case activity over the period 1998 to 2004.
The second column, which indicates inpatient base price, refers to the average cost per inpatient discharge based on the 32 publicly funded acute hospitals which participate in the casemix programme. Casemix is a method of hospital funding which quantifies hospital outputs by classifying each patient into a specific resource group. Individual procedures are not costed and the data cannot be used to estimate cost per procedure or total cost for all procedures. Casemix costs for 2004 are not yet available.
|
Year |
Total Number of Inpatient Procedures |
Inpatient Base Price |
|
€ |
||
|
1998 |
555,995 |
2,002.79 |
|
1999 |
682,389 |
2,325.37 |
|
2000 |
797,134 |
2,455.13 |
|
2001 |
980,517 |
2,910.03 |
|
2002 |
1,267,710 |
3,467.23 |
|
2003 |
1,433,610 |
3,644.19 |
|
2004 |
1,469,078 |
Source: This table is based on hospital inpatient inquiry, HIPE, data received to end of April 2005.
