INO: Number of beds lost equal to three big hospitals

THE number of hospital beds lost due to closures and delayed discharges is the equivalent of three large hospitals, according to figures from the Irish Nurses Organisation (INO) and the Health Service Executive (HSE).

Yesterday, the INO published the results of a survey which showed 705 beds closed in hospitals across the country. The highest number of closures, 56, is at Monaghan General, but a HSE spokesperson said this was due to the transfer of acute services to Cavan General as part of the reconfiguration of hospitals in the North-East. She said the 56 beds in question “were no longer required”.

In addition to the closures, the HSE’s own figures show delayed discharges are effectively blocking 900 beds, bringing the total number of beds unavailable to new admissions to over 1,600.

Overcrowding in emergency departments (EDs) is creating further headaches – the INO said a second survey revealed the level of overcrowding in the month of September was 31% higher than in September 2007; there were 4,581 patients waiting on trolleys during September this year compared to 3,494 in 2007.

The INO said it believed its surveys confirmed “the very negative impact upon frontline patient care as a direct result of budgetary cutbacks”.

INO general secretary Liam Doran said 300 jobs had been lost to the health service in July alone on foot of the moratorium on staff recruitment, including 157 nursing posts. “It is a sad but stark truth that the health service has never been less prepared to face the onslaught of winter, with all of the additional demands it brings, not to mention the challenge that will be faced by managing the swine flu pandemic.”

Labour Party health spokesperson Jan O’Sullivan said she would be calling Health Minister Mary Harney and HSE chief Prof Brendan Drumm to account at a meeting of the Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children tomorrow.

“This is a crisis of enormous proportions. The Health Minister cannot stand by and accept the level of cuts being proposed (€800m) next year. She needs to fight this. People who are sick should not suffer because of the economy or the appalling behaviour of builders and bankers.”

A spokesperson for Ms Harney said the bed closure and ED figures had to be looked at “in the context of activity in hospitals and the move to more day care procedures”. She said delayed discharges would be addressed through the Fair Deal nursing home scheme, launched yesterday.

A statement from lobby group Patients Together said they were “deeply disappointed” promises made by Ms Harney five years ago “remain unfulfilled”.

The Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA) said delayed discharges had increased by 25% in the last year. IHCA president Dr Paul Oslizlok said this was is a sign of financial pressure on hospitals, not of any medical trend. “If the State was driven by a concern for health, it would ensure there are sufficient step-down facilities. Words such as ‘shifting community care continues to be a key objective’ are fine and laudable, but action has not followed.”

Reacting to the comments, the HSE’s new national director of clinical care, Dr Barry White, said an additional 500 long-term care beds would be put in place within the next three months in an attempt to address the issue.