Harris: 600 hospital beds are on the way
But Minister is unsure on how they will be funded
SIX hundred new hospital beds will be delivered over the next three years through the Sláintecare programme, the Minister for Health has pledged.
Yesterday Simon Harris told the Oireachtas health committee that 600 of the promised 2,600 new beds under the reform plan would be delivered by 2021, but many of those will arrive by 2019.
One of the first places to benefit will be University Hospital Limerick, which will receive 60 new beds as part of the hospital prefab programme.
Mr Harris said: ‘I’ve asked the HSE to produce a document on how many beds could they deliver over the next three years.
‘They have come back with a figure of 600 hospital beds over the next three years... a fair chunk of them towards the latter half of 2019.’
When announcing the plans for modular builds, essentially prefabs, in hospitals last year, Mr Harris said it would provide a speedy but temporary solution to the hospital beds crisis.
‘This is the quickest way of getting additional bed capacity into our health service along with additional staff,’ he said at the time.
However, Mr Harris yesterday refused to get into any detail about how the additional beds, or indeed the Sláintecare project, will be funded, citing the fact that the Budget is a week away and negotiations are ongoing.
Committee chair and Independent TD Michael Harty TD asked: ‘How can you give us confidence that there is going to be funding made available to implement this strategy?’
Mr Harris replied: ‘That’s an issue that will have to be addressed through the normal budgetary process.
‘The Government has decided that the resourcing of Sláintecare, it is a matter for the estimates process.
‘Obviously we have our Budget next week.’
Fianna Fáil health spokesman Stephen Donnelly raised concerns that the plan, which is set to be rolled out over a ten-year period, would be linked with issues such as waiting lists, and could potentially delay such problems being resolved.
He said: ‘My concern is that Sláintecare is going to be tasked with solving things like waiting lists.
Mr Donnelly said that we didn’t need Sláintecare to bring down waiting lists, promote the health of our population, deliver accountability or a health care system that had the ability to plan and execute.
‘We need Sláintecare for reconfiguration,’ he said.
‘Bringing these waiting lists down and helping these men, women and children has nothing to do with Sláintecare. Most of these things have gotten worse over the last couple of years.’
Mr Harris responded: ‘I don’t agree that Sláintecare isn’t the key to addressing a lot of these challenges, including waiting lists,’ he said.
‘We will have our Budget next week’