Patients forced home early as cuts close 2,000 beds

CHILD, elderly and surgical patients are being forced out of hospitals earlier or told to have one-day treatments because almost 2,000 public health service beds have been closed nationwide.

Figures revealed by the Irish Nurses and Midwives’ Organisation (INMO) show that the number of beds available to patients is continuing to shrink.

However, the HSE has insisted that the number of beds “is not the only measure of how the hospital system is performing”.