Community care programme leading to 'very significant' improvements in waiting lists – HSE lead

Vivienne Clarke

The HSE’s Enhanced Community Care Programme has resulted in “very significant” improvements in waiting lists with a 16 percent reduction in chronic disease hospital admissions between 2019 and 2023, with 39,772 hospital bed days avoided last year.

Dr Orlaith O’Reilly, the HSE's clinical lead for the Chronic Disease Management programme, told RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland, that the system was designed to provide care closer to home, to avoid hospital admissions and to support early discharge, and address waiting lists.

Under the new programme, integrated care consultants, who work 50 per cent in the community and 50 per cent in hospitals, have been treating patients with chronic conditions, such as heart failure, COPD, high blood pressure, and diabetes.

“The programme is designed to provide care closer to home, to avoid hospital admissions and to support early discharge, as well as address waiting lists,” Dr O’Reilly explained.

“It's comprised of a number of elements, both strengthening community networks, providing older persons community teams, and also providing these care hubs for people with chronic disease, which has specialist teams like nurse specialist nurses, specialist physios in them and these new integrated care consultants.”

New figures relating to the programme published on Tuesday show significant progress for patients, particularly older people and those living with chronic diseases.

The data shows there was a 65 per cent reduction under the programme in the number of people waiting more than 12 months for care.

Community specialist teams have contributed to reductions in chronic disease hospital admissions by 16 per cent between 2019 and 2023, Dr O’Reilly said, compared to a 3.5 per cent decline in overall medical admissions during the same period.

Readmission rates decreased by over 23 per cent for people with chronic disease, lower than the 5 per cent reduction for all medical patients over the same five-year period.

There were nearly 100,000 patient contacts by the community specialist teams for older people, the data shows.

Of the patients seen, 74 per cent were discharged home with community-based interventions, avoiding acute hospital admissions. Just 3 per cent of patients were admitted to long-term care, and only 6 per cent required acute care.

There were 95,962 referrals to community intervention teams, resulting in 39,772 bed days being saved through timely interventions and treatments administered at home in 2023.

The figures also show that through the GP Access to Community Diagnostics (GPACD) scheme, there was a record number of radiology scans carried out last year, increasing by over 85,000 on the previous year to 335,000, reducing referrals to Emergency Departments, Acute Medical Units and outpatient departments.