The number of people waiting in accident and emergency units for admission to hospital is decreasing, Professor Brendan Drumm, head of the Health Service Executive (HSE) has said.
In an address to the head of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health and Children today Prof Drumm also said there was an unfortunate trend of adding up "the number of people waiting in an A&E department . . . while the presentation of this figure is very convenient, it is an inaccurate way to measure our success and shortfalls."
Mr Drumm said measuring the efficiency of A&E departments on this basis means the same significant is "given to people waiting half and hour, perhaps for someone to take them to a ward, and those waiting for over 24 hours for admission - which is not acceptable."
Of the 23,000 people attending A&E departments each week, Prof Drumm said around 5,000 need admission.
"Of these 5,000, around 90 per cent are automatically admitted and around 10 per cent may need to wait, with the majority waiting less than 6 hours," he said.
However, Prof Drumm agreed that in a handful of hospitals persistent issues remain and said the HSE "very focused on dealing with this".
He said the average number of people waiting for more than 12 hours for admission in an A&E department has be reduced by 13 per cent in the six months since May and is still falling.
Over the same period the number of patients waiting less than 6 hours for admission has increased to 16 per cent. However, Prof Drumm accepted that the figures were from outside the busy winter period.
Prof Drumm also briefed members of the Committee on the progress of talks on a new consultants contract. These talks adjourned in February 2006, and have not recommenced.
He said the HSE was willing to explore a variety of arrangements to meet the needs of the public health system and allow consultants to give a less than full-time commitment to the public health service.
"We need to accept that the workload carried by consultants at this point, will not be acceptable to young doctors going forward. We therefore need to develop structures with more flexibility . . . "
