Health Service Executive Emergency Departments. Patient Profiles, Experiences and Perceptions. Report of a National Survey among people who attended during 2006.

Ireland has 53 publicly funded acute hospitals, 35 of which have Emergency Departments. Every day these Emergency Departments see an average of 3,300 people, the majority of whom are treated there and then and discharged without the need for in-patient admission. To better understand the service user or patients’ experience of the service, the HSE contracted an independent research company to survey, by computer aided telephone interview, 1,600 representative members of the public who had used Emergency Departments during 2006. The aim of the survey was to ask patients about their experience of attending an Emergency Department and to learn from their experiences as a basis for making improvements that matter to patients.