Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)

The emphasis must be on how we use the beds. As I stated, we should have a national standard whereby 75% of those admitted for surgery would be admitted on the day of surgery. This does not happen. We do not have discharge plans for the vast majority of our patients.

The new HealthStat system, which will drive the performance of our hospitals, will be enormously beneficial in helping hospitals to do better with their existing stock of beds. I refer in particular to moving to more day-case activity, which is in line with the service plan that has been submitted to me by the HSE.

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