Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his reply. The fact that there is outside oversight in the context of the bed capacity review is welcome. Let us be under no illusions. For the past six years, the policy of the Department of Health, regardless of which Minister was defending it, has been to reduce the capacity of beds in the public hospital system. This policy was robustly defended for a long period and we were told that beds were not necessarily always the answer to increase the capacity to address the issues of waiting lists and other difficulties in the hospital system. If we were just independently evaluating bed capacity, on foot of the Department of Health pursuing a slash-and-burn policy in recent years, then I would have had a concern. I welcome that there will be outside observance of that issue.

Perhaps the Minister could clarify if intensive care unit, ICU, beds and theatre capacity will also be looked at in that context and whether or not there will be a differentiation between paediatric beds and adult beds in the assessment.

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