Stephen Donnelly weighs into row over HSE policy on discharging elderly

Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly said: “We will try to accommodate patient preferences and patient wishes in terms of discharge to the greatest extent possible. But if we’ve got an 80-year-old on a trolley downstairs on a corridor, they need that bed.” 

The Health Minister has said it is “disappointing” to hear a new HSE policy on discharging elderly patients being criticised as ageist by a top gerontologist.

His intervention comes amid division among medical and social care communities over advice for hospitals that elderly patients who need a nursing home bed after their treatment will be offered the first available bed, even if this is not their first choice.