Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Tuesday, 3 Nov 1998

Vol. 495 No. 7

Written Answers. - Hospital Services.

Michael Ring

Ceist:

395 Mr. Ring asked the Minister for Health and Children the cutbacks, if any, planned in the services of Mayo General Hospital for the remainder of 1998; if any wards will be closed due to lack of finance and so on; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22081/98]

Alan Shatter

Ceist:

425 Mr. Shatter asked the Minister for Health and Children the number of outpatient appointments cancelled for financial reasons per speciality in each hospital scheduled to take place in the last quarter of 1998; the number of beds closed for these reasons in each hospital; and the relevant speciality for the same period. [21444/98]

Minister for Health and Children (Mr. Cowan)

I propose to take Questions Nos. 395 and 425 together.

The number of planned temporary hospital bed closures for the final quarter of 1998 are set out in the attached table. The average monthly ber of beds closed will be in the region of 456. This represents approximately 3.7 per cent of the total number of 12,267 acute hospital beds available nationally. The 456 beds are located in 25 different hospitals out of a total of 55 hospitals nationally. Temporary bed closures in the final quarter of the year normally take place in the lead up to the Christmas period due to annual leave and reductions in elective admissions.

When temporary bed closures occur they are generally not confined to particular specialties but are spread across the range of specialties provided in a hospital. In this regard if closures occur in a ward normally associated with a particular speciality, patients due for treatment in that speciality would be accommodated elsewhere in the hospital.

It is important that temporary bed closures are viewed in the context of overall levels of activity delivered in the acute hospital sector against agreed service plans. In this context, the number of overnight beds in the system at any given time does not reflect the complete picture of activity in modern hospitals. For example trends in medical practice in recent years have been for a marked shift in care from in-patient level to day case and out-patient level together with reduced average lengths of stay and increased bed occupancy rates. To illustrate this point, overall acute hospital in-patient activity for January to June 1998 shows an increase of 1.11 per cent over the same period in 1997, while the corresponding increase in day activity is 9.7 per cent. This significent increase in day work clearly underlines the fact that a temporary reduction in bed numbers in any given location will not necessarily correlate to a similar reduction in activity in terms of total bed days used.

My Department does not collect information on out-patient appointment cancellations. While in certain circumstances in-patient beds may be closed on a temporary basis to enable activity to be brought in line with service plan targets and available funding, out-patient appointment cancellations are normally not directly used for these purposes.

HOSPITAL BED CLOSURES — LAST QUARTER 1998

	Bed complement	October closures	October closures as a per cent of bed complement	Planned November closures	Planned November closures as a per cent of bed complement	Planned December closures	Planned December closures as a per cent of bed complement	Average number of bed closures for last quarter of 1998	Average number of bed closures for last quarter of 1998 as a per cent of bed complement
			%		%		%		%
Eastern Health Board Area
Beaumont Hospital	627	33	5	22	4	95*	15	50	8
Cappagh Hospital	126	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
The Coombe Hospital	237	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children, Crumlin	258	21	8	0	0	n/a	0	7	3
National Maternity Hospital, Holles Street	206	13	6	0	0	32*	16	15	7
Incorporated Orthopaedic Hospital, Clontarf	104	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
James Connolly Memorial Hospital	257	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Mater	483	57	12	35	7	35	7	42	9
Naas General	94	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Rotunda	189	0	0	0	0	17*	9	6	3
Royal Victoria Eye and Ear	90	10	11	0	0	0	0	3	4
Hume Street	31	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
St Colmcille's	150	0	0	10	7	10	7	7	4
St James's	700	0	0	0	0	113*	18	38	5
St Luke's	172	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
St Michael's	95	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8
St Vincent's	472	41	9	24	5	60*	13	42	9
Temple Street	144	0	0	7	5	n/a	0	2	2
Tallaght	462	n/a	0	n/a	0	n/a	0	0	n/a
Midland Health Board Area
Mullingar	188	0	0	0	0	40*	21	13	7
Portlaoise	140	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Tullamore	177	0	0	0	0	40*	23	13	8
Mid-Western Health Board Area
Croom	99	25	25	25	25	25	25	25	25
Ennis	94	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Limerick Regional	397	0	0	0	0	50*	13	17	4
Limerick Reg. Maternity	116	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Nenagh	74	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
St John's	104	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
North-Eastern Health Board Area
Cavan	184	0	0	0	0	n/a	0	0	0
Dundalk	143	0	0	0	0	n/a	0	0	0
Monaghan	149	0	0	0	0	n/a	0	0	0
Navan	190	10	5	0	0	n/a	0	3	2
Drogheda	367	29	8	0	0	n/a	0	10	3
North-Western Health Board Area
Letterkenny	317	0	0	0	0	19*	6	6	2
Sligo	340	0	0	0	0	40*	12	13	4
South-Eastern Health Board
Cashel	81	0	0	0	0	25*	31	8	10
Clonmel	177	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Kilcreene	91	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Kilkenny	198	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Waterford	393	0	0	0	0	31*	8	10	3
Wexford	196	8	4	32	16	32	16	24	12
Southern Health Board
Bantry	68	0	0	0	0	n/a	0	0	0
Cork University Hospital	566	0	0	0	0	n/a	0	0	0
Erinville	56	0	0	0	0	n/a	0	0	0
Gurranebraher	126	0	0	0	0	n/a	0	0	0
Mallow	69	0	0	0	0	n/a	0	0	0
St Finbarr's	133	0	0	0	0	n/a	0	0	0
Tralee	354	0	0	0	0	n/a	0	0	0
Mercy	255	0	0	0	0	9*	4	3	1
South Victoria	186	0	0	0	0	89*	48	30	16
Western Health Board
Mayo General	270	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Merlin Park	202	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Roscommon	120	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
UC-HG	538	28	5	58	11	58	11	48	9
Portiuncula	212	0	0	0	0	36*	17	12	6

Total bed complement

12,267

Total monthly average number of beds closed for the last quarter of 1998

456

n/a = not available

* = seasonal closures at Christmas