HIQA publishes report on outpatient and radiology service referrals
The Health Information and Quality Authority has today published new recommendations on referrals for patients from their GP to outpatient and radiology services.
International best practice dictates waiting times should be less than 90 days, but only a very small number of Irish hospitals are meeting that deadline.
HIQA's issued 26 guidelines today, which they say will mean patients will be able to find out how far their referral has progressed, when they can expect to get an appointment, and get answers to their questions on the referral.
Among the 26 recommendations contained in the report are:
* That the HSE should have clear patient referral pathways for outpatient and diagnostic radiological services to ensure consistent and equitable access to services for patients
* A requirement for patient referrals to be individually and collectively tracked and traced
* More effective communication with patients and service users regarding the status of their referral
* A focus on improved governance, leadership and management to enable the delivery of a high quality safe referral system.
Speaking at the launch of the report, Professor Jane Grimson, director of health information with HIQA, said: “At present in Ireland, there is significant variation in patient access to, and waiting times for, consultant-led outpatient services and diagnostic services.
“International best practice indicates that waiting times should be less than 90 days. However, according to HealthStat, only a very small number of Irish hospitals achieved this target in November 2010 in particular specialties, demonstrating considerable variation in the delivery of services.
“Against this background of significant national variation in patient access to outpatient and radiological services, long waiting lists for services and known deficiencies within the current referral system, we undertook this review on how patient referrals to outpatient and radiology services from general practice are managed and looked at how this could be improved.”
