Martin Ferris (Kerry, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Angela Fitzgerald, a senior manager overseeing acute hospitals, has highlighted a growth in delays releasing healthy patients from hospitals. She has said that a National Service Plan 2019 target of having fewer than 550 beds subject to the so-called "delayed discharge" is being missed. This is Ms Fitzgerald saying this, not me. The number recorded from Ms Fitzgerald's briefing from April stood at 639. Ms Fitzgerald has said that further deterioration was expected due to a funding limit. It is basically coming down to funding being made available.

The Minister of State said:

Under the HSE's National Service Plan 2019, a budget of €28.5 million has been allocated to support discharges from acute hospitals... Despite this significant level of funding and service provision, the demand for services continues to grow.

Obviously, the money available for this is not adequate to meet demand. Beds are badly needed in hospitals for seriously ill patients but no beds are available because they are being taken up by healthy patients who are waiting for a discharge. This is inexcusable and it needs to be looked at further.

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