David Cullinane
Question:1872. Deputy David Cullinane asked the Minister for Health the number of acute inpatient beds funded in budget 2021 that have been delivered and that are expected to be delivered by year end. [35673/21]
View answerTuesday, 27 July 2021
Questions (1872)
Written answers
The Department of Health is working with the HSE to increase acute capacity in hospitals throughout the country. The Government allocated €236 million revenue and €40 million capital expenditure as part of Budget 2021 to fund 1,146 additional acute beds on a permanent basis by the end of 2021 (excluding critical care beds). A number of beds have been postponed for operational reasons, giving a new target of 1,063.
As of the 6th of May, the HSE has reported that 834 of these beds had opened. This represents a significant step towards achieving the recommendations in the 2018 Health Service Capacity Review.
With regard to the number of beds that have opened since, as this relates to an operational issue, it is a matter for the HSE. However, members of the Oireachtas are advised that the HSE is currently unable to access the information to answer Parliamentary Questions due to the recent cyber-attack, which has required a temporary shut-down of HSE IT systems. The disruption to service is on-going, and the HSE is working hard to restore its IT capacity and resume normal services. Members of the Oireachtas will be advised as soon as the HSE is again in a position to provide responses to PQs and are encouraged to resubmit their Parliamentary Questions at that point.