Nurses and doctors react to new of hospital bed closures
Dublin's five main training hospitals - the Mater, Beaumont, St Vincent's, St James' and Tallaght - are expected to announce further bed closures today due to a €100m budget deficit.
The chief executives of the five hospitals are due to issue a statement saying they need to close 250 beds, reduce surgical and medical procedures by 14,000 and lay off temporary staff in an effort to stay within budget.
The hospitals will say that they cannot sustain the existing level of services due to a lack of funding.
The Mater Hospital had already announced 115 bed closures in March due to budgetary constraints.
The Irish Medical Organisation, which represents Ireland's doctors, said the impending closures would cause suffering for many people.
IMO president Joe Barry said: "The A&E is already under pressure. That usually happens in the winter, but it's now going to happen in the summer. Whatever way you look at it, there are sick people looking for and expecting and needing hospital care and they're not able to get it and today's announcement means there will be more people not able to get the services they require."
Stephen McMahon, a spokesman for the Irish Patients' Association, said the bed closures are a result of the Government's mishandling of reform plans.
"We want efficiency in our health service," he said. "We need reform of its structures so that the money that can be saved can be put back into the front line where the money is needed . . . but you must have a sort of transition fund as you're reforming the process to ensure that patients who are sick today can get treated today."
The Irish Nursing Organisation has also said it supports reform in an effort to secure value for money from health spending. However, it said bed closures are not the solution to the current budgetary crisis.
Spokesman Liam Doran said the Government and hospital managers should implement reforms without resorting to measures such as bed closures, which would adversely affect patients and staff.
Meanwhile, the Irish Nursing Homes Federation said it has up to 500 beds available in the Greater Dublin region and is prepared to provide make them available to alleviate the current hospital crisis.
Pat Durcan, the federation's chairman, said: "If a patient comes to a stage in a hospital that they don't need to be there anymore then there should be a system where that patient is moved into a nursing home environment if they can't go back into the community. If that is done, you will certainly get better value for money out of the whole healthcare budget."
