Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 17 November 2020
854. Deputy Michael Fitzmaurice asked the Minister for Health the number of additional ICU beds that have been provisioned in both public and private hospitals since the first lockdown in March 2020 to date; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37050/20]
View answerAt the start of the year, permanent adult critical care capacity in our public hospitals stood at 255 beds, according to the National Office of Clinical Audit. This included 204 Level 3 ICU beds and 51 Level 2 HDU beds. As part of the initial response to the pandemic, funding was provided for an additional 40 adult critical care beds in March 2020 as well as two paediatric beds. The HSE has advised that between 280 and 285 critical care beds are currently open, with the number open any given day subject to fluctuation in respect of available staff and other operational considerations.
Budget 2021 will allocate funding totalling €52m in 2021 to critical care. This will retain, on a permanent basis, the 42 critical care beds put in place on a temporary basis this year and add significant new capacity. Funded adult critical care beds will increase to 321 by end 2021, an increase of 66 over the baseline number of 255 funded beds in 2020.
In relation to private hospitals, 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.
Following termination of the agreement the Government mandated the HSE to seek to agree with the private hospitals a new arrangement which would provide the HSE with full access to private hospital capacity in the event of a surge of Covid-19 cases. The negotiations are ongoing.
In relation to the provision of additional capacity in private hospitals, that would be a matter for the individual private hospitals themselves. The Department of Health does not have a role to play in capacity expansion in private facilities.
