Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 8 March 2017
252. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Health the extent to which he can provide or avail of step-down bed accommodation in all areas throughout the country as a means of alleviating overcrowding in public hospitals in general; if he has examined the potential use of decommissioned beds or wards in or adjacent to the public hospitals thereby providing an available solution; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12414/17]
View answerAs the Deputy may be aware, the HSE launched the ‘Winter Initiative Plan 2016-2017’ in September 2016 which provided €40 million of additional funding for winter preparedness and to assist hospitals to deal with increased demand. A key focus of the Winter Initiative is to improve access for hospitals to step-down care, social care and community measures to discharge patients, when deemed clinically appropriate, to return home or to a more appropriate community setting. Since the start of the Winter Initiative delayed discharges have reduced nationally from 638 to 517, freeing up hospitals beds to alleviate ED pressures.
In addition the Winter Initiative was cognisant of the need to support increased bed capacity within the system and as such 90 additional beds, including step-down beds, have been opened at the following hospitals: Galway University Hospital, the Mater Hospital, Beaumont Hospital, the Regional Midland Hospital Tullamore, the Regional Midland Hospital Mullingar and the Mercy Hospital in Cork.
My Department has also commenced a bed capacity review in line with the Programme for Government commitment. The intention is that this review will be broader than previous exercises that focused solely on acute bed capacity. The Department will utilise the information within this review to feed into planning and developing initiatives aimed at alleviating pressure within our acute hospital system.
