Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 10 July 2018
465. Deputy Louise O'Reilly asked the Minister for Health to set down the estimated cost of increasing the number of hospital beds in use in the system by 500, including the capital cost; and the number of beds that could be brought on stream before incurring a capital cost. [30203/18]
View answerThere is no one capital or revenue cost for building additional hospital beds. The cost is dependent on the nature of the additional hospital bed (Day Case , In-Patient, Intensive/Critical Care ), the clinical speciality and where the additional beds will be provided (for example, to an existing hospital, an extension to an existing hospital or the development of a new hospital).
As Minister for Health, I am committed to continuing the effort to address overcrowding in our Emergency Departments, and in particular, the capacity of the system to respond during periods of peak demand. In this context, I have asked my Department to work with the HSE to identify the location and mix of beds across the hospital system, which can be opened and staffed this year and into 2019 in order to improve preparedness for Winter 2018/2019.
A submission received from the HSE in this regard is currently under consideration by my Department. I can confirm that this proposal includes both new beds which incur capital costs and new beds within existing space which have little or no capital cost requirement.
