Staff and funding reductions lead to 1,900 bed closures

ALMOST 1,900 hospital beds have closed over the past 18 months due to staff cuts and an ongoing lack of investment in services.

Figures compiled by the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) reveal the extent of the looming hospital crisis with inpatients, long stay and surgical beds continually closing.

The knock-on effect of this is more people on trolleys and longer waiting times in emergency departments (ED).

INMO deputy general secretary Dave Hughes warned of a “hell of an autumn and winter” as EDs are already overcrowded.

Ireland has significantly fewer acute hospital beds than most other developed countries.

According to the OECD’s Health at a Glance 2009 report, Ireland has 2.7 acute beds per 1,000 population, compared to the OECD average of 3.8.

Mr Hughes said the number of people on trolleys and waiting in EDs was unprecedented, and that it was a bad sign for what was coming down the tracks later in the year.

Black spots around the country with large closures over the past 18 months include:

* Louth County Hospital: 97 beds closed.

* Monaghan General: 56 beds and a high care unit.

* Midlands Regional Hospital, Tullamore: 86 beds.

* Sligo General Hospital: 60 beds.

* Kerry General Hospital: 29 surgical beds.

* Cork University Hospital: 62 beds.

* Sacred Heart, Roscommon: 51 beds.

Mr Hughes said bed closures were slowing down the pace of discharge and admissions.

“As we can see from our trolley watch figures the consistency of the problem is becoming much worse. This is directly related to beds closing.”

He said the culmination of the recruitment ban and financial shortages had caused the problem and that it was highly unlikely that any closed beds would re-open.

In March this year, the HSE stopped publishing bed closure figures as it wants to introduce standardised criteria for calculating bed closure figures.