Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 17 January 2023

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health

Challenges Facing Emergency Departments in Public Hospitals: HSE

Mr. Stephen Mulvany:

I would agree and we are not in any way being critical of anyone here. When it comes down to matching the individual patient to the individual bed in an individual nursing home, things can sometimes get more complicated. In some cases it may be found that the nursing home is not in a position to take the particular patient. It depends on where the nursing home is, where the patient is, where the patient's original home and the family home are, whether they can be visited, and whether the nursing will be set up to deal with the patient's particular needs. We are not saying there is not some level of vacant beds but the information we have at the moment is that more than 96% of beds, particularly long-stay beds, in private nursing homes actually have somebody in them, either a public patient or a private patient. The remaining 4%, which is that 800 or 900 beds, is valuable. Certainly, at meetings we have been at regularly, our hospital or our community staff, or both, are talking to nursing homes to see what may be available and what might become available.

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