Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

More older people are occupying acute hospital beds for longer as they await ever-scarcer nursing home places. The consequences of that are very clear in terms of straitened health budgets and beds in the acute hospital system. Has the Minister of State established the number of patients of senior years who have been retained in acute hospital settings beyond their medical care need, many for inordinate periods of time? I know of cases where it has been months because of the shortage of beds in our public nursing home network.

The dreadful term "bed blockers" is used by some but I find it offensive. These people are not there by choice and would much rather be in their homes if that was an option but clearly it is not and that is why they are waiting for residential care. It is a hugely important issue not only for the people concerned but for the hospital system because I have been told - the Minister of State can contradict me again - we are talking of the order of perhaps 600 beds at any given time. The number may fluctuate somewhat but one is talking about a huge number of beds across our already straitened acute hospital network. This needs to be addressed.

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