Vol. 478 No. 7
16 Mr. Calley asked the Minister for Health the number of public hospital beds available in the public health system; the waiting period to avail of a public bed for each procedure in each hospital; if he has satisfied himself that there are sufficient beds in the system; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12158/97]
Limerick East): There are approximately 12,500 beds in the acute public hospital system. As the Deputy will be aware, the total number of beds available varies because some beds will be closed from time to time and over the winter period extra beds are brought into the system. Hospital bed closures are usually planned to coincide with periods when staff are on annual leave and this is to take advantage of a fall off in elective procedures during the holidays. In addition, such periods are often used as an opportunity to refurbish wards or to carry out minor capital improvements. Decisions on bed requirements are best left to local management.
In looking at acute hospital service delivery it is inappropriate to focus solely on bed numbers as a measure of hospital resources. In recent years, more emphasis has been placed on overall levels of service provided in acute hospitals rather than on the provision of a specific number of beds. This is a reflection of the major changes in medical practice which have resulted in a reduction in the length of stay for in-patient care, the marked shift towards day case surgery and treatment of patients at out-patient level.
I hope the Deputy will understand that the scheduling of admission to hospital is determined solely on the basis of the patient's medical condition and not on the length of time spent on the waiting list. Emergency cases are obviously given priority. My Department does not routinely collect data on average waiting periods for admission to acute public hospitals. This is because waiting times can vary depending on the local conditions such as the impact of emergency admissions on scheduled routine admissions. Also, the success of many modern surgical procedures has led to increased demand and consequently longer waiting times for non-emergency cases. We have experienced this in the case of hip replacements.
However, I am anxious to improve waiting times and waiting lists. Since I came into office I have provided significant resources for new developments to help improve access times to acute hospitals based on the priorities identified by the hospitals. I have also provided £20 million under the waiting list initiatives since 1995 for specialities where waiting times have been deemed excessive and I am providing a further £8 million this year to further improve the position.
