Reference metadata describe statistical concepts and methodologies used for the collection and generation of data. They provide information on data quality and, since they are strongly content-oriented, assist users in interpreting the data. Reference metadata, unlike structural metadata, can be decoupled from the data.
The Joint Questionnaire provides statistics on non-expenditure related health care, such as:
Health care human resources, facilities and utilisation.
Workforce active in the health care sector (e.g. physicians, dentists, nurses, etc.) and their status (e.g. graduates, practising, migration of physicians and nurses, etc.).
Available health care technical resources and facilities (e.g. hospital beds, beds in residential care facilities, medical technology, etc.).
Health activities or patient contacts undertaken (e.g. hospital discharges, surgical procedures, ambulatory care data, etc.).
Data refers to annual national and regional data, which is provided in absolute numbers or as a rate of the relevant population (refer to section 4. “Unit of measure” for more information). Majority of the data is based mainly on administrative records (see Section 18.1 “Source data” for more information).
3.2. Classification system
The following classifications are referred to throughout the compilation of the non-expenditure health care data:
For health employment, the Directive 2005/36/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 7 September 2005 on the recognition of professional qualifications applies.
The Eurostat manual on healthcare non-expenditure statistics provides an overview of the classifications, both for mandatory variables and variables provided on voluntary basis. Where required, the statistics are separated by sex (male/female), age group and region.
For more information on definition deviations and coverage, see annexed document.
3.3. Coverage - sector
Data submitted aims to cover all areas of the National health care system (such as: public and private health care, etc.).
For more information on coverage for specific variables, refer to respective headings in the annexed document.
3.4. Statistical concepts and definitions
The non-expenditure health care statistics describe the health sector from a non-monetary perspective. The statistics explain the number or rate of different health care resources, facilities and utilisations.
A wide range of indicators are collected from a multitude of sources and therefore, details pertaining to individual variables are given in the annexed document. Furthermore, any national changes of statistical concepts and national definitions deviating from EU Regulation No 2294/2022 are indicated in the same annexed document.
The following statistical units are referred to in the Joint Questionnaire data:
Registered health professionals and workforce.
Health care facilities and their resources.
Health care system users and activities.
Refer to Section 4. "Unit of measure" for the respective measurement units of these statistical units.
3.6. Statistical population
The following statistical populations are referred to in the Joint Questionnaire data:
All registered/professionally active/practicing health professionals.
All health workforce (including hospital staff, long-term care, etc.).
All health care facilities and resources (in both public and private sectors).
All patients and length of duration of treatment (in both public and private sectors).
All health care services and surgical procedures (in both public and private sectors).
Applicable targeted population for various national immunisation and screening programmes.
3.7. Reference area
The reference area is that of the geographical boundaries of the Republic of Ireland, with no exclusions.
3.8. Coverage - Time
The length of the time series can vary depending on the indicator concerned. Every effort is made to ensure the time series continuity as much as possible. More information about breaks in series and data gaps per variable can be found in the respective heading in the annexed document.
3.9. Base period
Not applicable.
The following units of measures are found in the Joint Questionnaire data:
Headcount (including full-time equivalence) of health workforce.
Stock and annual inflows of doctors and nurses.
Number of hospitals and beds.
Number of operations theatres and medical technology units.
Number of discharges and bed-days.
Number of consultations, procedures and exams carried out.
Percentages of immunisations and screenings.
Headcount of graduates.
Data refers to either "over a calendar year" or "as at end of year" for the respective year of reference.
Any deviations is respectively mentioned in the annexed document.
6.1. Institutional Mandate - legal acts and other agreements
Any data submitted pre-2008 had no legal basis and was done as part of a "gentlemen’s agreement" among Eurostat and the Member States.
The Joint Questionnaire on Non-Monetary Health Care Statistics is carried out by Eurostat, in agreement with OECD and WHO-Europe. Data submitted in this questionnaire is therefore shared among these three entities.
7.1. Confidentiality - policy
While no confidentiality policy exists specifically for the submission of the Joint Questionnaire data at national level, any disseminated information is vetted for confidentiality and secondary confidentiality, in line with the adopted principles and guidelines included in the Commission Regulation No 223/2009.
7.2. Confidentiality - data treatment
While no confidentiality policy exists specifically for the submission of the Joint Questionnaire data at national level, an adopted common practice to suppress through aggregation any identifiable information (including secondary confidentiality) is applied throughout the questionnaire's variables. Any suppressions are respectively indicated (if any) in the annexed document under their respective variable heading.
Furthermore, additional disseminations by Eurostat, OECD and WHO-Europe are mode publicly available on their respective online databases and various publications.
Data is submitted on an annual basis from February 2023 onwards as directed under the EU Regulation No 2294/2022, which is then disseminated according to the Department of Health's statistical calendar and the Eurostat, OECD and WHO-Europe dissemination schedules respectively through various preferred dissemination methods.
10.2. Dissemination format - Publications
Data is submitted on an annual basis from February 2023 onwards as directed under the EU Regulation No 2294/2022, which is then disseminated according to the Department of Health's statistical calendar and the Eurostat, OECD and WHO-Europe dissemination schedules respectively through various preferred dissemination methods.
10.3. Dissemination format - online database
Data is submitted on an annual basis from February 2023 onwards as directed under the EU Regulation No 2294/2022, which is then disseminated according to the Department of Health's statistical calendarand the Eurostat, OECD and WHO-Europe dissemination schedules respectively on their official online data portals.
Nationally, a summary and data on the key themes of; Physicians, Midwives and nurses, Other healthcare professionals, Helathcare graduates, Hospital and surgical activities, Hospitals and hospital beds, Medical technology is made available on the Department of Health website. In addition, data published on this webpage is also made available on Ireland's open data portal.
10.4. Dissemination format - microdata access
No microdata is compiled/transmitted/disseminated on these data topics, as directed under the EU Regulation No 2294/2022, both by Eurostat/OECD/WHO-Europe and Nationally.
10.5. Dissemination format - other
Data is submitted on an annual basis from February 2023 onwards as directed under the EU Regulation No 2294/2022, which is then disseminated according to the Department of Health's statistical calendarand the Eurostat, OECD and WHO-Europe dissemination schedules respectively through various preferred dissemination methods.
10.6. Documentation on methodology
Methodology documentation shall refer to the EU Regulation No 2294/2022 as well as any accompanying manuals/notes/annexes.
10.7. Quality management - documentation
Disseminated methodology document will refer to this metadata report, including any accompanying annexed document/s.
11.1. Quality assurance
The following main actions are undertaken to assure quality:
Ensure the use of the best available source (i.e. data is of a good quality, is consistent, is timely and as close to the definitions as possible).
Assist sources in addressing issues in order to be able to provide more accurate data.
Conduct checks at every step of the data compilation process.
11.2. Quality management - assessment
At National level, consistency and coherence checks on the received data is conducted to ensure accuracy. Furthermore, assistance to data sources to develop or address data issues are made available to ensure accurate coverage as indicated in the governing regulation.
At European level, output standardisation is ensured through the definitions of the formats (list and content of target variables, data format, etc.) and the timetable of data transmission. This is complemented by Eurostat's consistency and integrity checks on the submitted data so that output quality standard is reached.
Finally, any data is accompanied with a quality report that analyses the accuracy, coherence and comparability of the submitted data.
12.1. Relevance - User Needs
Main users of the Joint Questionnaire, are the following:
1. National users (e.g. National Statistical Institution, Public departments, National Agencies, etc.). 2. Statistical users in Eurostat, OECD, WHO or in Member States. 3. Researchers. 4. Other end users (e.g. media).
12.2. Relevance - User Satisfaction
Not available. No User Satisfaction Survey is conducted on the transmitted data under the Joint questionnaire.
12.3. Completeness
Figures submitted tend to have specific inclusions or exclusions, which are further defined in the annexed document. In addition, potential double counting is also flagged in the annexed document when necessary.
13.1. Accuracy - overall
The submitted figures provide a general accuracy on the data submitted.
The most common coverage issue in hospital activity is that of private hospital exclusions, which is estimated to cater for 25% of national activity (this figure is based on the Health Ireland Survey 2018 and is an estimate only to be interpreted with caution).
For coverage criteria and breaks in series, refer to annexed document for more detail per variable heading.
13.2. Sampling error
Not applicable.
13.3. Non-sampling error
Not applicable.
14.1. Timeliness
EU Regulation No 2294/2022 establishes the reference period and timeliness of data transmissions from the National Statistical Institutes.
Data and metadata submissions follow the established deadlines for the respective reference year in the EU Regulation No 2294/2022.
15.1. Comparability - geographical
All data sources refer to National coverage (refer to Section 3.7 "Reference Area"), unless otherwise specified in the variable definition and/or annexed document.
15.2. Comparability - over time
Data comparability is possible, provided that same source and coverage criteria have been maintained. Any breaks in series are dutifully flagged.
For more information on sources and coverage per specific variables, refer to annexed document.
15.3. Coherence - cross domain
Most of the data reported is based on population administrative data with national coverage, so most of the data is consistent. However, when other national data sources are used there can be differences in coverage between sectors, which is stated for each variable in the annexed document.
15.4. Coherence - internal
Internal coherence checks are conducted prior to transmission. Time-series coherence and consistency is also verified. In addition, coherence checks between variables are made across modules, such as; practicing and licensed to practice data for health professionals, number of hospital beds and discharges.
Questionnaire-based sources are designed to keep respondent burden controlled so as to avoid high non-response rates and ensure good quality of the collected information.
Non-survey-based sources are obtained from registers and administrative sources, whose use of this data is for other information activities over and above the submission of the Joint Questionnaire data requirements.
17.1. Data revision - policy
Provisional figures are updated upon the next transmission, provided that the final data is made available.
With regards to data errors, whether arising from input data or calculation methodology, these are corrected as soon as possible following their identification, and corrected figures are transmitted.
17.2. Data revision - practice
Revisions occur for provisionally flagged figures, as well as in cases of new adjustments or possible corrections.
18.1. Source data
Source data for each variable is provided in the annexed document.
18.2. Frequency of data collection
Annual.
18.3. Data collection
The majority of the data sources stem from registers or administrative data.
The rest of the data sources are survey based (e.g. private resident population aged 15+, census based estimates). It is estimated that survey-based sources cater for around 6% or the total current data sources.
18.4. Data validation
Data validation occurs in multiple stages:
Data is checked upon receipt from source for accuracy.
Data is compared to previous years’ figures for consistency.
Arithmetic checks are conducted prior to inclusion.
Final trend checks are conducted on the overall questionnaire data.
18.5. Data compilation
Aggregated data is compiled at National level (unless specified at regional level) through arithmetic sum on National data disaggregation received.
For survey-based data, the aggregate is compiled based on a population-weighted arithmetic sum/average/percentage (depending on the variable in reference).
18.6. Adjustment
Missing data for mandatory variables is estimated (for estimation methods, refer to relevant section in the annexed document).
For non-mandatory variables, where data does not exist, no adjustments or estimations are made and data is not provided.
The Joint Questionnaire provides statistics on non-expenditure related health care, such as:
Health care human resources, facilities and utilisation.
Workforce active in the health care sector (e.g. physicians, dentists, nurses, etc.) and their status (e.g. graduates, practising, migration of physicians and nurses, etc.).
Available health care technical resources and facilities (e.g. hospital beds, beds in residential care facilities, medical technology, etc.).
Health activities or patient contacts undertaken (e.g. hospital discharges, surgical procedures, ambulatory care data, etc.).
Data refers to annual national and regional data, which is provided in absolute numbers or as a rate of the relevant population (refer to section 4. “Unit of measure” for more information). Majority of the data is based mainly on administrative records (see Section 18.1 “Source data” for more information).
28 February 2025
The non-expenditure health care statistics describe the health sector from a non-monetary perspective. The statistics explain the number or rate of different health care resources, facilities and utilisations.
A wide range of indicators are collected from a multitude of sources and therefore, details pertaining to individual variables are given in the annexed document. Furthermore, any national changes of statistical concepts and national definitions deviating from EU Regulation No 2294/2022 are indicated in the same annexed document.
The following statistical units are referred to in the Joint Questionnaire data:
Registered health professionals and workforce.
Health care facilities and their resources.
Health care system users and activities.
Refer to Section 4. "Unit of measure" for the respective measurement units of these statistical units.
The following statistical populations are referred to in the Joint Questionnaire data:
All registered/professionally active/practicing health professionals.
All health workforce (including hospital staff, long-term care, etc.).
All health care facilities and resources (in both public and private sectors).
All patients and length of duration of treatment (in both public and private sectors).
All health care services and surgical procedures (in both public and private sectors).
Applicable targeted population for various national immunisation and screening programmes.
The reference area is that of the geographical boundaries of the Republic of Ireland, with no exclusions.
Data refers to either "over a calendar year" or "as at end of year" for the respective year of reference.
Any deviations is respectively mentioned in the annexed document.
The submitted figures provide a general accuracy on the data submitted.
The most common coverage issue in hospital activity is that of private hospital exclusions, which is estimated to cater for 25% of national activity (this figure is based on the Health Ireland Survey 2018 and is an estimate only to be interpreted with caution).
For coverage criteria and breaks in series, refer to annexed document for more detail per variable heading.
The following units of measures are found in the Joint Questionnaire data:
Headcount (including full-time equivalence) of health workforce.
Stock and annual inflows of doctors and nurses.
Number of hospitals and beds.
Number of operations theatres and medical technology units.
Number of discharges and bed-days.
Number of consultations, procedures and exams carried out.
Percentages of immunisations and screenings.
Headcount of graduates.
Aggregated data is compiled at National level (unless specified at regional level) through arithmetic sum on National data disaggregation received.
For survey-based data, the aggregate is compiled based on a population-weighted arithmetic sum/average/percentage (depending on the variable in reference).
Source data for each variable is provided in the annexed document.
All data sources refer to National coverage (refer to Section 3.7 "Reference Area"), unless otherwise specified in the variable definition and/or annexed document.
Data comparability is possible, provided that same source and coverage criteria have been maintained. Any breaks in series are dutifully flagged.
For more information on sources and coverage per specific variables, refer to annexed document.
