Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank our witnesses for summing up the situation. I listened to the opening statement and Professor Cowan talked about the reconfiguration that occurred back in 2009. They were looking for 642 beds at that stage and they got 530. There was a shortfall of 112 beds. Even with the new unit that would propose beds, they would still be short of them. We also heard this morning the fact the population has risen since then. Further to some of the focus this morning, we cannot manufacture these beds, but what can we do in relation to the capacity within the system?

We have had representatives of other hospital groups and hospitals in and they have been quite innovative in some of the responses. There is one hospital in the Dublin area that has experts going out in the ambulance service, particularly for dealing with older people. We have heard tales of the errors in beds. That is one example. We have not touched on the issue of step-down beds this morning. Is there an issue there? The relationship with the local authority, again, in some areas is better than others, especially for the whole area of independent living, housing adaptation and so on. Again, we have not looked at the wider picture of that.

I have another question in the couple of minutes that are left. I outlined some areas, but I refer to looking at best practice in other areas. For example, this committee met in relation to some of the regionalisation that will be going on. One of the concerns we had was there would not be that interaction within the system and learning from other areas where clearly systems are working and innovative, are not costing a huge amount, but that work and deliver for people. Are our witnesses confident that, moving forward, collaboration will still continue? What plans do they have for tweaking the system? The minor injuries clinic and other areas were mentioned. Are there still shortfalls they could make up in relation to the fact that they will always be in a difficult situation regarding a shortage of beds within UHL?