Portiuncula the best maternity unit-RMH

[Posted: Fri 02/11/2007]

By Niall Hunter,  Editor, and John Gibbons, Publisher

Mums have voted Portiuncula Hospital in Ballinasloe, Co. Galway as providing Ireland’s best maternity service, according to the latest ratings statistics from irishhealth.com’s award-winning ‘Rate my Hospital’ service.

The figures show however, that two of the three major Dublin maternity hospitals, the Coombe and Holles Street, are not even in the top 10 in the Rate my Hospital league table for maternity services.

The ‘Rate my Hospital’ maternity statistics, based on almost 9,200 fully completed 23-part online patient surveys in the last 12 months, show that Portiuncula is in first place nationally, followed by South-Tipperary General in second spot, with Dublin’s Rotunda Hospital in third position. Mayo General Hospital is in fourth place in the patients’ ratings chart, with the Midland Regional in Mullingar in fifth spot.

Dublin’s Coombe Hospital is in 13th place, with the National Maternity, Holles Street trailing in 15th place in the league table. Propping up the table in last place of the 18 hospitals included in this section of the survey are the maternity services at Donegal’s Letterkenny General Hospital (see full table at foot of press release).

With ‘Rate my Hospital’, patients and their relatives are asked to rate hospitals on a scale of one to five based on recent hospital experience under a number of headings relating to quality of care and facilities. They are also asked to name the relevant hospital specialty.

In the maternity ratings a total of 19 Irish hospitals for which there was a statistically significant number of ratings currently feature in the league table.

Meanwhile, in ‘Rate my Hospital’s latest league table for A&E services, South Tipperary General Hospital, Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital, Crumlin and St John’s in Limerick are in joint first place. Roscommon County Hospital, which was formerly top of the table, has now tumbled to seventh place, while the Mater in Dublin remains rated by patients as Ireland’s worst A&E.

Ratemyhospital.ie, has recently been announced as one of the World's Top 40 ‘E-Content’ projects, in a global competition run in conjunction with the United Nations, which selected the winners from some 24,000 projects in 160 countries.

Ratemyhospital.ie is one of five global winners in the ‘E-Health’ category of the bi-annual World Summit Awards, and the first ever Irish winner in the E-Health category of this prestigious international competition.

The award is to be presented to MedMedia Group publishers of irishhealth.com, which developed and operates ‘Rate my Hospital’, at a Gala Ceremony hosted by the United Nations in Venice, Italy on Monday November 5th.

‘Rate my Hospital’ maternity league table (as of 31/10/07)

1. Portiuncula Hospital – 81%
2. South Tipperary General – 78%
3. Rotunda Hospital Dublin – 75%
4. Mayo General Hospital – 73%
5. Midland Regional Hospital, Mullingar – 72%
6. St Luke's General Hospital Kilkenny – 71%
7. Cavan General Hospital – 69%
8. Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital Drogheda – 69%
9. Wexford General Hospital – 67%
10. Midland Regional Hospital Portlaoise – 67%
11. Sligo General Hospital – 66%
12. Erinville Hospital, Cork (*) – 65%
13. Coombe Women's Hospital – 65%
14. Mid-Western Regional Maternity, Limerick – 63%
15. National Maternity Hospital, Holles Street – 62%
16. Waterford Regional – 62%
17. University College Hospital, Galway – 58%
18. Letterkenny General Hospital – 53%
Percentage scores are calculated on the basis of patients’ one-to-five ratings in a 23-part online questionnaire.
*Maternity services ceased in Erinville Hospital, Cork in March '07

For the latest Rate my Hospital overall league table, specialty ratings, and patient comments, click on http://www.ratemyhospital.ie