No A&E stats in Luxembourg

(JB) No statistics are available on the number of people using accident and emergency services (A&E) in Luxembourg's hospitals, the health minister has revealed.

The lack of statistics emerged after a parliamentary question was put to Mars di Bartolomeo by ADR deputy Jean Colombera.

Mr Colombera wished to know how many emergency patients passed through the country's A&E departments, how long was the average wait for treatment and what sort of injuries or cases were reported.

Mr di Bartolomeo was stumped by the questions, pointing out that there are currently no systems in place to accurately record statistics for all hospitals.

However, the minister said that a documentation system, aimed at recording such information, would be available in the future.

He was able to report the number of complaints from patients regarding emergency hospital treatment, indicating that there were nine complaints in 2009 and 16 in 2010.

Mr di Bartolomeo added that steps were underway to reduce complaints and waiting times and underlined that emergency service departments would not be subject to budget cuts which may compromise their quality of service.