Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 14 June 2022
1578. Deputy David Cullinane asked the Minister for Health the average number of open and funded critical care beds in the public health system in 2021; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29811/22]
Amharc ar fhreagra1579. Deputy David Cullinane asked the Minister for Health the planned number of critical care beds to be added and the total number of critical care beds by year-end 2022; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29812/22]
Amharc ar fhreagraI propose to take Questions Nos. 1578 and 1579 together.
The Government is committed to addressing the long-standing deficit in critical care capacity. Very significant funding of €77 million has been provided by Government across 2021 and 2022, to increase national capacity to 340 critical care beds by 2023. The HSE has advised that capacity of 333 beds can be reached by the end of this year, with the remaining 7 beds to open in 2023.
The Strategic Plan for Critical Care, which I brought to Government in December 2020, will when implemented fully address the recommendation of the 2018 Health Service Capacity Review for 430 critical care beds by 2031. In fact, it surpasses that recommendation, delivering an increase in capacity to 446 over time.
At the end of 2021, there were 297 permanent adult critical care beds open. A further 9 beds have opened to date in 2022, bringing capacity to 306 beds. This represents a very significant increase of 51 beds, or 20%, over the 2020 baseline of 255 beds. To put that in perspective, we had a total net increase of 18 beds in the three years 2017, 2018 and 2019.
With regard to the average number of critical care beds open and funded in 2021, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the Deputy directly.
