2,500 people cannot access in-patient hospice beds

There are just 155 hospice beds available at a time when there should be 450, it emerged at yesterday’s meeting of the Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children

Around 2,500 people cannot access an in-patient hospice bed because they do not exist, the Irish Hospice Association told the committee during the first of a series of hearings into end-of-life care.

“We have 155 hospice beds today. According to national HSE plans, we should have 450,” said Sharon Foley, chief executive of the Irish Hospice Foundation. “We have plenty of strong national plans around specialist palliative care. But we fall down, again and again, when it comes to putting policy into practice.