Bed-blockers ‘still a problem’

Health Minister Leo Varadkar has said long-standing ‘bed-blockers’ in Irish hospitals will not disappear overnight — despite announcing a €25m war-chest to tackle the crisis.

While saying the money would help an average of 700 mainly elderly patients a day to step down to non-hospital services, thereby freeing up space in the hospital system, the minister insisted the “scale of the problem” means the issue cannot yet be consigned to the past.

“It’s a relatively small amount of money given the scale of the problem, and it certainly does not mean that in a few months’ time we will have solved the problem,” he said.