Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú) | Oireachtas source

Is deas an rud é a fheiceáil go bhfuil an tAire Stáit ar ais agus tá súil agam go bhfuil an tsláinte go maith aici. This year, we in Aontú have researched the number of people who are medically discharged from hospital but forced to stay there because of a lack of home care or step-down beds. The information we have received is incredible. The HSE told us that on a given day, there are 536 people in hospitals who have been discharged and have no need to be there but are forced to stay because there is no home care package or step-down facility for them. This is shockingly damaging for the patients who must stay in hospital and are not getting ongoing treatment elsewhere, but it is also shockingly damaging for the patients who are stuck on trolleys in hospital emergency departments because they cannot get a bed.

I have done the maths on this. The HSE reckons it costs €878 to put a person in a hospital bed for one day. Taking the 536 people awaiting discharge, it is costing €500,000 on a daily basis for the HSE to provide beds for people who have no need to be in them. If the cost is added for the whole year, it comes to €171 million to provide HSE beds for patients who have been clinically discharged. The doctors can do no more for them. They do not want those patients in the hospital beds; they want them elsewhere in the health service or at home with access to a step-down facility. Not providing the necessary home care and pathways for these patients is costing €171 million a year. No matter what way one looks at it, this is outrageous. That amount would pay for a whole lot of home care. It is beyond time the Government ensures this is no longer the case and that the necessary investment goes into step-down facilities and home care packages to enable people to go home. I know of people who were in hospital for more than two years after being medically discharged. That is wrong for any patient.

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