The Enhanced Community Care Programme carried out by the HSE has led to considerable progress in cutting down waiting lists, with a 16% drop in hospital admissions for chronic disease patients from 2019 to 2023, and a total of 39,772 hospital bed days saved in 2023 alone.
Dr Orlaith O’Reilly, who is at the helm of the Chronic Disease Management Programme for the HSE, revealed to RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland that the initiative aims to offer healthcare services near patients’ residences. This is done to minimise hospital admissions, expedite discharge procedures, and tackle waiting lists.
In the revised scheme, specialised care doctors who split their time between community settings and hospitals, have been treating chronic conditions like heart failure, COPD, high blood pressure and diabetes in a setting closer to the patients’ residences.
Dr O’Reilly explained that the programme is designed with multiple components, including bolstering community networks and deploying community teams for elderly people. It also includes setting up care hubs for chronic disease patients with expert medical teams, and the introduction of these specialised care doctors.
Statistics released on Tuesday revealed that the programme has positively impacted patients, particularly the elderly and those suffering from long-term illnesses. Through delivering healthcare services closer to residences, there has been a 65% reduction in people awaiting care for more than a year.
Specialised community medical teams caused a 16% decrease in chronic disease-related hospital admissions between 2019-2023, compared to the 3.5% decline in overall medical admissions within the same period.
There has been a 23% reduction in readmission rates for chronic disease patients from 2019 to 2023, compared to a mere 5% reduction for all other medical patients.
Specialised teams for senior citizens had close to 100,000 patient interactions. Out of these patients, 74% were discharged home, receiving interventions from community-based programmes and avoiding emergency hospital admissions. A mere 3% were admitted to long-term care, while 6% required emergency care.
A total of 95,962 patients were referred to community intervention teams, enabling the saving of 39,772 hospital bed days through onsite interventions and treatments in 2023.
The recently implemented scheme, GP Access to Community Diagnostics, contributed significantly to a historical high of 335,000 radiology examinations being performed in 2023, marking an increase of over 85,000 from 2022. This led to a decrease in referrals to emergency departments, outpatient departments, and Acute Medical Units.