Concern that new hospitals will be overflow facilities
DUBLIN, Cork and Galway will each gain an elective-only hospital facility under the National Development Plan.
However, there were concerns last night that the hospitals, designed to tackle oversubscribed waiting lists, will become overflow areas for general hospitals.
The Government’s plan sets out a €10.9billion boost for health services in the period to 2027. Under the plan, an extra 2,600 beds will be provided.
Yesterday, officials with the Department of Health confirmed that the elective-only facilities are likely to be ‘sited adjacent to general hospitals’ to ‘tackle waiting lists and provide access to diagnostic services’.
A spokesman said: ‘They will provide increased protected capacity for elective treatment and free up capacity in major public hospitals to address higher complexity and emergency care.’
‘The aim is to both increase capacity… and provide a better separation
‘Will enhance health system’s capacity’
of scheduled and unscheduled care.’
Despite fears that such facilities will become overflow areas for general hospitals, Fianna Fáil’s health spokesman Billy Kelleher said that placing such facilities near general hospitals would be ‘critically important’.
However, he continued: ‘All of these things should be based on best international medical evidence and what is right for efficiencies for patient outcomes.’
When asked if he was concerned the beds in these new facilities could be perhaps used as an overflow for overcrowded hospitals, Mr Kelleher said: ‘The primary purpose is for them to enhance the capacity of the overall public health system.’
Other aspects of the plan include already-mooted new maternity hospitals as well as improvements to information and communication technology services in the sector.
Ambulance fleets being upgraded with new bases established in as many as four locations, extra primary care centres, increased residential accommodation for mental health services and people with disabilities, as well as 90 community nursing homes being upgraded, also form part of the ambitious plans.
The Government’s plan was last night welcomed by Dr Tom Ryan, president of the Irish Hospital Consultants Association, as he believes ‘the commitment is an important first step in addressing the overwhelming acute hospital capacity deficits’.
Dr Ryan said these deficits are the ‘root cause of delays in providing acute hospital care to patients’.
Phil Ní Sheaghdha, general secretary of the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, said: ‘The commitment to 2,600 acute beds plus an additional 4,500 community beds is entirely dependent on significant reform of our health services.’