1,000 hospital bed shortfall predicted

THE country’s largest health agency, the Eastern Regional Health Authority (ERHA) is predicting a shortage of 1,000 acute beds in the region by 2011.

The Authority’s new Strategic Plan 2003-2007, and reported in Medicine Weekly, shows that 20% of all admissions to acute beds in the region are from outside the ERHA.

Michael Lyons, the ERHA’s chief executive has already stated that protocols for referrals will have to be agreed with health boards, hospitals and GPs to balance the needs of patients against resources available.

According to the strategic plan, referrals from outside the region account for 41% of elective bed days.

A spokeswoman for the ERHA said a large number of patients who came to their hospitals looking for treatment could be treated locally, where equally good services were available in their own health boards.

However she said the ERHA was not planning to curtail services to these patients.

“Obviously in our planning and funding for the future we will take the matter into consideration. A lot of those patients that come to us come for routine matters could be treated locally, but no decision has been made to stop treating them.”

The National Maternity Hospital has said it may have to consider refusing expectant mothers from counties outside of Dublin as a result of a shortfall in its funding.

The predicted bed shortage is despite a Government commitment to provide a total of 3,000 beds over the next 10 years. Approximately 270 beds came on stream in the ERHA last year, but only an additional 35 are expected this year, according to the ERHA spokeswoman.

Meanwhile, last year’s €5 million spend by the ERHA on growing numbers of heroin addicts is expected to place further strain on the Authority’s budget this year. Up to 6,000 addicts are currently receiving treatment in the ERHA’s 68 addiction clinics and a number of residential detoxification clinics, up 15.5% on January 2001. A spokeswoman said they expect to spend 5 million this year treating 95% of the nation’s addicts.

The East Coast Area Health Board, (ECAHB) which buys services from the ERHA, is also under financial pressure. At the board’s March meeting acting chief executive Gavin Maguire said they would need to cost cut to the tune of €18 million to break even at the end of the year.