The HSE repeatedly missed its own targets for providing critical access to certain cancer treatments as well as rapid access to breast, prostate and lung assessments and urgent colonoscopies, according to its recently published annual report.
It also missed its targets across a range of other metrics while its 2023 plans for expeditiously processing patients admitted to emergency departments across the State were also significantly adrift, its national scorecard highlights.
Last year the HSE set itself a target of ensuring 90 per cent of patients undergoing radical radiotherapy would see their treatment commencing within 15 working days of being deemed ready for the procedures by their oncologists. However the annual report published last week suggests that the actual figure was marginally over 63 per cent.
A target of 95 per cent was set for new patients attending rapid access breast, lung and prostate clinics within recommended time frames, with the actual figure put at just under 80 per cent.
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Under the HSE plan no patients would have waited longer than four weeks for access to an urgent colonoscopy but a total of 1,266 people had to wait longer than that to be assessed, the annual report noted.
The target percentage of adults waiting less than nine months for an elective in-patient treatment was set at 90 per cent, with the actual percentage coming in at 73.6 per cent. On an out-patient basis, the HSE fared slightly better although it still missed its 90 per cent target by almost 10 per cent.
The HSE also set 90 per cent targets for having elective in-patient and day-treatments within a nine month time frame, with the actual percentages coming in at 63.6 and 69.3 per cent respectively.
When it comes to the access to the State’s emergency departments, the report highlights that many of the HSE’s targets were also missed and sometimes by huge margins.
The HSE had set a target of ensuring that 95 per cent of patients aged 75 and older would not spend over six hours in an emergency department before being admitted or discharged last year but the actual percentage was just 36.4 per cent.
Almost one in 10 people over the age of 75 were waiting more than 24 hours in emergency departments last year, the annual report suggests. More broadly, 57 per cent of patients attending emergency departments were discharged or admitted with six hours, less than the target of 70 per cent.
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