Almost €1m annually spent on staffing HIPE

According to the figures, which were released by the HSE in response to a parliamentary question from Fianna Fáil Deputy Aindrias Moynihan, the cost was €932,419 in 2015 and €958,826 in 2016.

The costs cover the areas of data collection, IT, analysis and management. 

The HIPE system is managed by the Healthcare Pricing Office, which was formed in 2014 following a merger of the National Casemix Programme and the Health Research and Information Division at the ESRI.

HIPE involves a system that collects information on hospital day cases and inpatients in Ireland.

Staff at the Healthcare Pricing Office provide training in clinical coding to all hospital staff working in this area, in addition to developing and supporting the relevant software requirements.

HIPE collects demographic, clinical and administrative information on discharges and deaths from acute hospitals nationally. It is the only source of morbidity statistics available nationally for acute hospital services in Ireland. All acute public hospitals participate in HIPE, reporting on over 1.5 million records annually.