Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Tuesday, 24 Mar 1992

Vol. 417 No. 5

Written Answers. - Hospital Bed Statistics.

Ivor Callely

Ceist:

254 Mr. Callely asked the Minister for Health if he will list the total number of beds in each Dublin hospital; whether these beds are designated private, public, intensive care, accident or emergency, and if he will outline the procedures when the accident and emergency beds are fully utilised.

Minister for Health (Dr. O'Connell)

The formal designation of acute public hospital beds involves three categories: public, private and non-designated. The latter category includes beds such as those in intensive care units where a distinction between public and private will not arise.

The current designations of beds in Dublin acute public hospitals are set out in the following table. Three hospitals were excluded from the designation exercise as the extent of private practice is not significant, i.e. St. Mary's, Baldoyle; Cherry Orchard, and National Medical Rehabilitation Centre.

The regulations governing the new arrangements for access to public hospitals, under which the designation of beds has been carried out, provide explicitly that any patient requiring an emergency admission will be admitted to whatever bed is available. For example, a public patient requiring an emergency admission will be accommodated in a private bed if no public bed is available, andvice versa.

	Public	Private	Non-Designated	Total
St. Colmcille's	118	27	5	150
James Connolly	217	27	13	257
Peamount	118	11	0	129
Mater	419	43	21	483
St. James's	474	78	68	620
St. Vincent's	394	48	30	472
Meath	206	62	20	288
Beaumont	499	87	41	627
Adelaide	119	54	7	180
St. Michael's	60	29	5	94
Eye & Ear	58	29	4	91
Crumlin	192	58	8	258
Temple Street	102	29	5	136
Harcourt Street	45	19	1	65
Rotunda	108	54	27	189
Holles Street	103	65	31	199
Coombe	130	64	30	224
Cappagh	98	11	12	121
Hume Street	23	8	0	31
St. Anne's/St. Luke's	133	31	2	166
Inc. Orthopaedic	92	12	0	104
Total	3,708	846	330	4,884