Update care ‘or face €4bn bill for beds’

THE Health Service Executive has warned an extra 20,000 beds in public hospitals will be needed by 2020 at a cost of €4 billion unless changes are introduced in the provision of healthcare in Ireland.

HSE chief executive Brendan Drumm said he supported the findings of a report which recommended the development of an integrated health system which would see patients spending less time in acute hospitals than at present.

Prof Drumm claimed the move to treating more patients on a day-release basis and through the greater use of community-based health services, was already under way. He argued the alternative of providing more acute hospital beds, which would require the HSE to build a 600-bed hospital each year for the next 12 years, was unsustainable in dealing with an ageing population.