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Tallaght Hospital let down by bed promise

Wednesday, 16 July 2008

Concerns have been raised that the Government has not honoured a promise it made to increase bed capacity at a Southside hospital.
Deputy Brian Hayes (FG) recently revealed information he received from the HSE concerning the average number in-patient beds available in Dublin hospitals at the end of 2007.
He said he was “astonished” to discover that Tallaght Hospital had just 550 beds available - nearly 300 less than St James’s Hospital, which serves a catchment area with a similar population size.
The new figures indicate that despite promises made by the current Government to increase bed capacity within Dublin hospitals, the situation in recent years has deteriorated with just short of 12,000 beds available in the region.
The HSE is currently carrying out a survey of patient needs within Dublin’s acute hospitals.
Deputy Hayes said it was clear that overall treatment capacity across all of Dublin’s hospitals was “woefully inadequate” in terms of providing spaces for public patients who require elective surgery and those who come through Accident and Emergency wards.
He said that when Tallaght Hospital was first planned the Government made a commitment that 750 beds would become available within three years of its opening.
“The hospital is now in its 10th year, and as the new information highlights, only 550 beds have become available,” Deputy Hayes said.
“I am aware that St James’s and Beaumont have seen increases in the number of beds available within their hospitals in recent years but the same cannot be said for the situation in Tallaght.”
The number of beds currently available at the major Dublin hospitals include: Adelaide and Meath Hospital (Tallaght) 550; Beaumont Hospital 617; Mater Hospital 528; St James’s Hospital 839 and St Vincent’s Hospital 507.
A spokesperson for the Department of Health said that the Programme for Government includes a commitment to provide an additional 1,500 public acute hospital beds.
“About 1,000 of these will be provided through the co-location initiative and the balance through the HSE’s capital plan,” the spokesman said. “The co-location initiative aims to make available additional acute beds for public patients through the transfer of private activity from public hospitals to co-located private hospitals.
“Work is ongoing in relation to the invitation to tender in respect of the development of a co-located hospital with Tallaght Hospital.”
In a statement the HSE said: "Hospitals are funded on the basis of the number of beds and the complexity of the cases dealt with by the hospital."

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