Men are more likely than women to be sent home too early from hospital, statistics on hospital readmission suggest. And the likelihood of men being discharged too early has worsened in recent years, the figures show.
The statistics were supplied to Mr Dan Neville TD by the Minister for Health in reply to a written question.
They show that last year 23,544 people were readmitted to hospital within a week of being sent home. Not all would have been readmitted because they were discharged too early, but with the intense pressure on hospital beds the likelihood is that a substantial proportion should not have been sent home as soon as they were.
The figure represents an improvement on 1999, when 24,459 people had to be readmitted within a week of going home. But it is significantly worse than that for 1998 (21,254) and 1997 (20,815).
Particularly noticeable, however, is the worsening position of male patients. Last year 62 per cent of those sent home too early were male. This compares with 55 per cent in 1997 and 1998 and 61 per cent in 1999.
In most health board areas, medical-card holders are less likely to be sent home too soon than non-medical-card holders. This trend is strongest in the Eastern region, where 57 per cent of those sent home too early last year were people whose income puts them above the medical-card limits.
This trend is reversed in the areas of the North Western Health Board (Donegal, Leitrim, Sligo) and Western Health Board (Galway, Mayo, Roscommon).
There medical-card holders are far more likely than others to be sent home too early. This, however, may reflect very high proportions of medical-card holders in these regions, where many farmers and others would be below the income limit.
Forty-five people were waiting a year or longer for ENT treatment at Tralee General Hospital at the end of December, the latest date for which figures are available. Another 34 had been waiting for three to 12 months, the Minister for Health and Children recently told Mr Denis Foley TD. Forty people had been waiting for surgery for a year or more.
Ninety-one per cent of non-urgent surgical procedures at St Vincent's Hospital, Elm Park, Dublin, in the period April to June last year were on public patients. Private patients accounted for only 140 of the 1,551 procedures.
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