Written Answers - Hospital Accommodation.
Breeda Moynihan-Cronin
Question:
19
Ms B. Moynihan-Cronin
asked the
Minister for Health and Children
his plans to ensure the provision of a greater number of step down beds, especially in the greater Dublin area to prevent a repeat of the crisis seen in mid-January when many hospitals had to suspend elective surgery and others had to appeal to people not to attend accident and emergency departments; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
[6646/03]
The hospital system in general is experiencing increased pressure on available beds due to a number of factors, including the growth in population, the number of in-patient beds in the system and the increasing number of older people who have a higher than average length of stay. The pressure on the hospital system, and in particular on hospitals providing accident and emergency services, is more severe over the winter months.
The Government has taken a number of measures designed to enhance accident and emergency services. A €41 million investment package was provided in the winter of 2000-01 aimed at alleviating service pressures and maintaining services to patients, particularly in the acute hospital sector. This investment package provided,inter alia, for the recruitment of an additional 29 accident and emergency consultants. As many as 17 of these posts have been filled and the recruitment process is continuing in respect of the remaining posts.
As part of the winter initiative announced in 2000 beds were contracted from private and voluntary nursing homes where appropriate facilities were available for patients being discharged from the acute hospital sector. This arrangement allows for people to be cared for in a more appropriate setting with a more suitable level of care. It also ensures that people are maintained in a setting best suited to their needs. It eases service pressures on the acute hospitals to allow for the more effective treatment of patients who need intensive medical intervention.
There is a commitment in the national health strategy to provide 1,370 additional assessment and rehabilitation beds, plus 600 additional day hospital beds with facilities encompassing specialist areas such as falls, osteoporosis treatment, fracture prevention, Parkinson's disease, stroke prevention, heart failure and continence promotion clinics. In addition, the strategy proposed the provision of an extra 800 extended care-community nursing unit places per year over a seven year period which will include provision for people with dementia.
Public private partnerships are currently being piloted in the health sector. PPP is based on the concept that better value for money for the Exchequer may be achieved through the exploitation of private sector competencies to capture innovation and the allocation of risk to the party best able to manage it. Initially the focus will be mainly in the area of community nursing units for older people. It is anticipated that 17 new CNUs will be created when the initial pilot programmes are complete, providing up to a maximum of 850 new beds in Dublin and Cork. The services offered in these units will include: assessment/rehabilitation, respite, extended care and convalescence.
If the public private partnership pilots demonstrate success, I intend to use them as a means of providing additional CNUs in other locations throughout the country.
