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Hospital Data

Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 21 October 2020

Wednesday, 21 October 2020

Questions (255)

Cormac Devlin

Question:

255. Deputy Cormac Devlin asked the Minister for Health the number of ICU units by private hospital in tabular form; the details of ICU surge capacity that was available during the HSE private hospital contract period; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32032/20]

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Written answers

In anticipation of the projected surge in Covid-19 cases and the expected impact on the health care system a major part of the response was to urgently ramp up capacity for acute hospital care facilities.  A critical element of the strategy was to put in place an arrangement with the private hospitals to use their facilities as part of the public system, to provide essential acute hospital services for the duration of the emergency. Following negotiations with the Private Hospitals Association an overarching agreement with the 18 private acute hospitals was agreed at the end of March. Under the agreement, the HSE secured 100% of the capacity of the private hospitals until the end of June.

The utilisation rate of critical care beds in private hospitals varied throughout the three month period in which the agreement was in place. The HSE has advised the Department that in the last week of April 53% of critical care beds in private hospitals were in use, while in the last week of June 48% of critical care beds were in use.

In terms of wider critical care capacity, as part of work undertaken earlier this year to determine the capacity of the private hospital system, it was estimated that there were 47 ICU beds and 54 High Dependency Unit beds within the private hospital system.

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