‘We will do better’ - Canavan

Hospital boss vows ‘we will do better’


Mayo General Hospital comes out bottom in survey of performances of 29 acute hospitals



Áine Ryan

MANAGER of Mayo General Hospital (MGH), Mr Tony Canavan, last night (Monday) said that while disappointed with yesterday’s HealthStat revelations that MGH is the poorest performing of hospitals around the country, he was committed to the process. He also said the report showed some positive aspects of services.
Speaking to The Mayo News, he said: “I was disappointed for the hospital and, naturally, as its General Manager, I want us to do as well as we can. That’s why one of the strengths of the HealthStat is that it provides a framework for accountability. As a framework, I absolutely support it because it makes us accountable to the people of Mayo.”
He also observed that, on the positive side, the hospital had performed well, and was lower than the national average in length of stay. Mr Canavan said he expected significant improvement in several areas in the coming year.
The Health Services Executive (HSE) for the first time yesterday published detailed performance figures for 29 of its acute hospitals around the country. It revealed that MGH is the poorest-performing hospital, graded against 22 standards, including waiting times for operations, routine diagnostic tests and accident and emergency services.  
Introduced last year, the HealthStat figures address a range of broad performance indicators under the headings of: Access, Resources and Integration.
“Under Access the measure of most concern is patient admission and particularly those left waiting on trolleys. That is very hard for any patient. The HSE has set a very high priority for dealing with this measure and here at Mayo General we have made a lot of progress on this problem over the years,” Tony Canavan explained.
He cited the fact that, for example, yesterday (Monday) it was a quiet day, as was last weekend but that January had been very busy. “During the winter months there are a lot of older patients and people with respiratory problems admitted,” he said.
Mr Canavan also observed that the opening last May of the eleven-bed Clinical Decision Unit was a significant measure toward the improvement of access.
“Essentially the idea behind this unit is to fast-track patients through the hospital. And we have also been working with GPs to ensure the efficient use of our Emergency Department and Medical Assessment facilities,” he continued.
He then proceeded to explain that, under Resources, HealthStat compared the budget for January 2009 with the overspend.
“I’m not really concerned about this result since the real measure is the annual balance and over the  last six years the hospital has always broken even and I don’t know how many other hospitals have achieved that,” he also said.
Regarding the third criterion of Integration, he noted that there are a number of different measures.
“We need to do better in the processing of our day cases as there are a huge number of procedures that can be done in one day. We can make a lot more progress in that area. Then, we did very well in the Average Length of Stay and are lower than the national average in that category. And that’s a very important measure because it indicates how efficient we are at using our beds,” he concluded.
Meanwhile, Professor Brendan Drumm, Chief Executive of the HSE, denied that the process was a name-and-shame exercise.
“We have been building on this programme for the last three years. It’s not about criticising people, it’s about people learning from one another. We have set the bar very high with this system and in a sense we are hanging out our linen here, we’re saying here is how we perform, here is how we would perform if we were best in class, and this level of transparency will be hugely positive in the long term,” said Prof Drumm.

HealthStat Ratings – Red Green and Amber   
MGH, along with Cork University Hospital and Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda, received an overall rating of red, which indicates ‘unsatisfactory and requiring attention’. Among the best-performing hospitals were St Vincent’s University Hospital, Dublin and the Midland Regional Hospital, Mullingar. However, they just received an amber rating which indicates ‘slightly better’.
No hospital received an overall green rating, which indicates ‘good performance’. While Galway University Hospital received an overall amber rating, it received a red rating for its Access to Services.