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”.

According to confirmed INMO figures, on the first day of this month last Thursday, 1,947 beds across the public hospital and related units system were unavailable.

This includes massive bed closure levels at Louth County Hospital (97 beds closed), the Midland Regional in Tullamore (86) and Dublin’s Beaumont (62).

The latter has been embroiled in a union row on claims that extra trolleys are being put in its emergency department ward.

Bed closure difficulties are also apparent in Cork, where the city’s three largest facilities — Cork University Hospital, Mercy University Hospital and the South Infirmary Victoria University Hospital — have all been significantly affected. At the start of this month, these hospitals had 62, 45 and 27 beds closed respectively.

Crumlin Children’s Hospital also saw 25 beds closed on September 1 — all of which are designated for orthopaedic patients.

The INMO said this is the equivalent of an entire surgical theatre being unavailable for use, and has caused significant capacity issues for the hospital.

A HSE spokeswoman told the Irish Examiner the bed closures crisis was not affecting patient care and that hospitals “must comply with statutory obligations” due to the system’s “extremely challenging” budget problems.

This meant delivering “the level of service detailed in the 2011 HSE service plan while remain[ing] within its allocated budget”.

Health service unions do not believe hospitals can stay within budget without impacting on patient care, given the pressing agency worker and overtime costs filling recruitment ban-inflicted staff gaps.