Martin rejects bed closure claims
Speaking at the union’s annual conference in Galway yesterday, Mr Martin said that as of Thursday, 81 hospital beds had been closed by Dublin’s five leading hospitals.
However, INO delegates rubbished his claims, saying that 141 beds were closed on Thursday, including 80 at the Mater, 25 in Our Lady’s Hospital in Crumlin, 20 in James Connelly Memorial Hospital and 16 in Beaumont.
A spokeswoman for the minister said he had quoted a figure supplied to him by the Eastern Regional Health Authority (ERHA) on Thursday evening and that the bed closures represented “a constantly evolving picture”. She said by the end of next week, 27 beds would have closed at Beaumont. INO delegates said another 70 were due to close at Beaumont on June 1.
The minister also said 520 extra beds had come into the system since this time last year. However, his spokeswoman admitted that when offset against the ongoing bed closures, the net figure was 400.
Mr Martin came under fire at yesterday’s conference when he said “no one can deny the system is providing more and better services than ever before”.
He said it was important to have a sense of perspective and to acknowledge that patient treatment figures were up 180,000 on five years ago, 30,000 extra staff were working in the health services and salaries were up between 30%-50%.
Referring to the bed closures, he said his department, the hospitals and the ERHA would meet again next week to discuss the closures and that no final decisions had been made. He said because the hospitals involved had “very significant cumulative deficits” it had compounded the problem. He said no extra money would be made available.
“We have to work within existing allocations, but we will work with the ERHA and the hospitals to see if we can alleviate the situation.” INO president Clare Spillane said the closing of public beds, while some hospitals expand their private beds, in order to generate income, was unfair and inequitable.
She also criticised the nurses’ benchmarking award, saying they would not sign up to another benchmarking exercise that lacked transparency. She condemned the Government’s failure to implement all the recommendations of the Commission on Nursing Report.
