David Cullinane
Question:327. Deputy David Cullinane asked the Minister for Health the total number of intensive care hospital beds in the State per 1,000 population; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [47222/21]
View answerThursday, 30 September 2021
Questions (327)
Written answers
Ireland currently has 296 permanent critical care beds in place across our hospital system, or approximately 5.92 critical care beds per 100,000 people. This is an increase on the figure of 5.2 critical care beds per 100,000 recorded in 2019 in the interim national report by the National Office of Clinical Audit (NOCA) Irish National Intensive Care Unit Audit. It follows the addition of 41 permanent critical care beds to date in 2021.
Recruitment is ongoing to enable the opening of a further 25 additional beds over Q42021 and Q1 2022, which will bring permanent critical care beds to 321 across the system, an increase of 25% on baseline 2020 capacity.
Significant funding of €52m was provided in Budget 2021 to put these beds in place, in line with Phase 1 of the Strategic Plan for Critical Care, which was noted by Government in December 2020. When fully implemented, the Strategic Plan will bring critical care bed numbers to 446, slightly exceeding the recommendations of the 2018 Health Service Capacity Review in regard to critical care.