Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

First, the current number of total adult critical care beds open and staffed is 278. There are 30 paediatric critical care beds open and staffed, 218 occupied adult critical care beds and 23 occupied paediatric critical care beds. There are 13 adult critical care beds reserved for patients and one paediatric critical care bed reserved for patients. The €600 million agreed by the Cabinet this week as part of the winter initiative is essentially a Covid winter initiative to take us through specifically the next six months. It is designed to allocate resources to reduce pressure on emergency departments and innovate around community respiratory clinics, for example, as a preventative mechanism to intervene in order that people do not end up in emergency departments as was the case in the past. It will create more bed capacity in acute facilities, but also in non-acute facilities which will facilitate people coming out of hospital in a timely manner once their treatment is completed. It makes provision in terms of community diagnostics and, where it is possible to continue with elective procedures separate from the trauma hospitals, for that to be done and accelerated. The HSE knows that any capacity it can deliver in the short term and medium term will be funded and resourced. It is probably the largest winter initiative for some time and it is necessarily so because we are anticipating significant challenges on that front.

I agree with the point made by the Deputy with regard to testing. I have been in office for 12 weeks. I believe a permanent workforce is required for testing and tracing and that is what is happening. That is what is detailed in the plan we published yesterday. It sets out that we will have a dedicated testing and tracing team that will work side by side with health service personnel. When the testing and tracing regime was originally established in response to the pandemic, people were drawn from various disciplines within the health service. There was a view that in the initial phase a clinical decision maker was required. There is no doubt that as we expand and ramp up testing and tracing even beyond its current level, a dedicated workforce will be required. A figure of 3,000 personnel to be employed in testing and tracing is identified in the plan. That is a significant number of people, but it is what is necessary.

There are, without question, significant pressures in University Hospital Limerick and the mid west. I have been in contact with the Department of Health, the Minister and the HSE with a view to implementing measures to alleviate the situation in the mid west.

See this speech in context