THE HSE has launched a new system that allows patients to see how busy their local hospital is as cases presenting to hospitals nationwide are on the rise. However, consultants have warned that the new data provides "little value" in understanding each hospital's individual circumstances. The new outpatient attendance dashboard is on the HSE 's website and can be viewed by name or by health region.
Only one Dublin-based hospital, Connolly Hospital Blanchardstown, has been featured in the data. The HSE said that the data is "preliminary" and they hope to add more hospitals in the future . The HSE said: "We publish a report on the average number of outpatient appointments seen by health region, hospital, specialty and consultant in 21 hospitals.
"We don't show data for all hospitals. But are working towards adding more hospitals to this report in the future. "The data in this report is preliminary.
This means that hospitals may update it in the future. But it is a good indicator of activity based on the latest information we have." Of the 21 hospitals featured, Galway University Hospital, Cork University Hospital and University Hospital Limerick have the busiest outpatient clinics.
Galway University Hospital has a monthly average attendance of 28,194. The average monthly attendance at Cork University Hospital is 27,624, and UHL sees 20,430 average monthly visits at its outpatient clinics. The busiest specialities are Orthopaedics at 22,507, Obstetrics at 19,525, and General Med.