If the figures for the number of people who die in hospital with MRSA were made public they would be in danger of frightening people, the head of the Health Service Executive, Prof Brendan Drumm, said yesterday.
"To give that figure to the public would be almost unfair," he said, adding that there would be a huge risk people would be traumatised unnecessarily. Prof Drumm added that most people who died in hospital while having MRSA would be critically ill for other reasons.
He made his comments when addressing the Dáil Health Committee, where he was asked why such data were not made public. Fine Gael Senator Fergal Browne said patients going into hospital should be able to find out how many patients in the hospital had MRSA and how many patients with it had died.
Prof Drumm said he did not have a principled objection to putting out such information but feared it would worry people. He also said it would be difficult to calculate.
He added that clostridium difficile, another hospital-acquired infection, was a significant cause of morbidity and mortality in hospitals.
On a separate issue, Prof Drumm said the length of time patients had to wait to see a specialist was one of the biggest challenges facing the HSE. Liz McManus, Labour's health spokeswoman said she was aware of a person waiting four years to see an ear, nose and throat specialist. Independent Mayo TD Dr Jerry Cowley said people were waiting eight years to see a urologist in the west and between four and five years to see a rheumatologist.Prof Drumm said the service needed more specialists and fewer junior doctors, who were costing as much as consultants in some cases.
Minister for Health Mary Harney, who also addressed the committee, said reform of the health service was in its early days. She said when a record number of 495 patients were on trolleys in A&E recently it became an urgent situation that required "thinking outside the box". But she said sorting out A&Es will only happen when wider hospital problems are fixed.
Prof Drumm said the system would continue to struggle until primary care services were improved. He criticised hospital consultants who said bed capacity was the only problem. Internal processes in hospitals were also a factor, he said.
There were the same number of beds in the Republic as in the UK, when private beds were taken into account, he claimed. But Prof Drumm said as the population increased more beds would be required.
Ms Harney said there was no question of extra beds for the sake of them, as they cost €1 million each. She believed if there were 5,000 more beds there would still be problems.
The HSE is reviewing beds capacity in hospitals and in the community.
Meanwhile, the committee was told the HSE had balanced its books in the end for 2005 and had a capital surplus of €51 million.
And Prof Drumm confirmed a report on the HSE's review of the controversial pay roll computer system, PPARS, will go to its board meeting next week.