Rationale: Patients referred to specialist palliative care (SPC) services are triaged within 1 day and prioritised according to clinical guidelines as Category 1,2 or 3. Category 1 patients are deemed to need immediate intervention by the specialist palliative care team and should be seen within 2 days. This is the number of calendar days from triaged category 1 patients to first face to face appointment with the community specialist palliative care team. Includes all patient conditions referred to community specialist palliative care services including cancer and non-cancer patients. Calculation: (number <2 days)/( all categorised cat 1 metrics)*100 and presented as a percentage(Number of Category 1 patients seen within 2 days )/(total number of category 2 patients)/100 Example: Cat 1: <2 days = 5, Cat 1: from 3-7 days = 6, Cat 1: 8-14 days = 7, Cat 1: 15+ days = 8 would be calculated as: (5)/(5+6+7+8)x100 = 19.2%

Number of Category 1 patients seen within 2 days.

Total number of category 2 patients.

Reporting is aggregated at the national, Community Healthcare Organisation (CHO) and Local Health Office (LHO) level.

Information is sourced by specialist palliative care services who forward to Business Intelligence Unit office and copy to Community Healthcare Organisation (CHO) Business Unit. Data Completeness is expected at 100%. Data quality issues are addressed as they arise.

Public reporting.

www.hse.ie/eng/services/publications/performancereports/ www.hse.ie/eng/services/publications/kpis/2024-palliative-care-services-nsp-metadata.pdf www.hiqa.ie/areas-we-work/health-information/data-collections/hse-performance-reports-palliative-care

Unable to locate full specifications. Some details are available here: www.hse.ie/eng/services/publications/kpis/2024-palliative-care-services-nsp-metadata.pdf