Hospital co-location plan may fail to deliver extra 1,000 beds

AN EXTRA 1,000 hospital beds promised by the Government may not be delivered because of “complications” with the co-location plan.

Taoiseach Brian Cowen admitted that the scheme, one of the main planks of the Government’s hospital reform strategy, is progressing at a slower rate than expected.

Just four of the originally proposed ten private hospitals are now expected to be built on public hospital grounds because the new Programme for Government limits the co-location policy to “projects under existing contractual agreements”.