Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 6 October 2020
681. Deputy Mattie McGrath asked the Minister for Health the total expenditure by the HSE on Covid-19 to date; a breakdown of the main areas of expenditure; the amount of increased capacity that has been added to the healthcare system since the onset of Covid-19; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28395/20]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe Irish Government set out in its National Action Plan on Covid-19 16 key action aimed at flattening the curve of the pandemic outbreak in Ireland.
The focus of the first 8 actions was effective communication to manage the public health response, caring for ‘at risk’ or ‘vulnerable’ members of society, ensuring the ability of the acute hospitals system to care for people during the pandemic, expansion of critical physical capacity, protecting our health workforce and maintaining access to essential health products, equipment and services.
The implementation of the first 8 actions was the responsibility of the Health Service Executive supported by the Department of Health and the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform.
The total estimated Covid-19 related spend by the HSE to the 18th of September on delivering these eight actions is €1,886m set out as follows;
|
Area of Spend |
Total Spend (m) |
|
Heading 2 Cross Cutting Actions |
€15 |
|
Heading 3 Communications |
€11 |
|
Heading 4 Community Care and Vulnerable Groups |
€356 |
|
Heading 5 Caring for People in Acute Services |
€600 |
|
Heading 6 Expanding Critical Physical Capacity |
€26 |
|
Heading 7 Expanding and Protecting our Health Workforce and essential workers |
€88 |
|
Heading 8 Maintaining access to essential health products and equipment and services necessary to support the management of Covid-19 |
€790 |
|
Total |
€1,886 |
Flattening the curve of the pandemic was essential given the capacity constraints which already existed in the Irish hospital system and the significant risk that Ireland’s hospital system would become overwhelmed very quickly. Ireland has the highest acute bed occupancy in Europe at 93% and one of the lowest levels of critical care beds per 1,000 of the population in Europe at 3.3.
Given these capacity constraints in the acute hospital system a major focus from the onset of Covid-19 has been on increasing capacity to cope with the surge in demand that could arise from Covid-19 outbreaks. The Department of Health is working with the HSE to increase acute capacity in hospitals throughout the country.
In the context of the current COVID-19 Pandemic response since March:
- The number of critical care beds has increased by 42 since the start of the year to 297
- Noncritical care bed capacity has increased by 324 to 11,597.
In addition as part of the initial emergency response Increased bed capacity provided by the private hospital sector amounted to 1,900 inpatient beds, 600-day beds as well as 47 ICU and 54 HDU beds.
To date the Government’s measures have been successful in flattening the curve and the additional capacity put in place has allowed the system to cope within the current response requirements.
