The Minister for Health has announced the creation of an extra 709 acute beds in public hospitals. Micheal Martin said that the vast majority of these beds will be in place by the end of this year.
The Minister was outlining the details of an expert review of bed capacity. The provision will cost €65m and is the first phase of the 3,000 additional acute hospital beds planned over the next ten years. This was promised by the Government in its health strategy last year.
Almost 250 of the additional places are in the Dublin region. The rest will be distributed throughout the rest of the country.
The Irish Nurses Organisation has warned that the plan will not work without tackling the nursing shortage.
The expert review illustrates the severe bed shortage faced since cutbacks in the 1980s. There are now 6,000 fewer beds than in 1980. At a ratio of 3.1 beds per 1,000 people, Ireland has one of the lowest levels of bed availability in the European Union.
In this same period of time, hospital activity rose by 57%, with bed occupancy levels up to 100% in many major hospitals.
The expert report says that 3,000 more beds will be needed over the next ten years just to catch up. The growing numbers of elderly people have been described as a "demographic time bomb" for the health services.
The Department now has the money for extra beds this year, as well as a commitment from hospitals that those beds can be put in place by the end of the year. What it does not have is the 800 staff needed to keep those beds in service.
