HSE blasted for funding just 30 detox beds

A DRUG rehabilitation expert has slammed the Health Service Executive (HSE) for only providing 30 detox beds while there are as many as 20,000 heroin addicts nationwide.

The HSE only funds a total of 30 public residential rehabilitation beds in Cherry Orchard Hospital and the Beaumont Hospital while the country’s heroin problem spirals out of control, according to Merchants Quay Ireland.

Director of the group, which works with heroin addicts battling to get off drugs, Tony Geoghegan, said the lack of residential detox beds shows the HSE’s lack of interest in tackling the issue.