Feargal Quinn (Independent)

Bearing in mind the shortage of hospital beds reported in Ireland, my attention was drawn recently to the position on hospital beds in other countries. A friend of mine who recently went to hospital in the United States was told he should stay in the hotel beside the hospital. His operation was not very serious and he was told he could be picked up at the hotel and brought to the hospital after which he would be returned to the hotel. Something similar happened in Hume Street Hospital some years ago — Hume Street is not too far from Leinster House. The hospital reorganised and devoted half of its operation to day care because it found that a very large number of its patients did not have to stay in bed all day long or all week long.

My attention was drawn this morning to a proposal in the United Kingdom that the relatives of older people who are blocking hosptial beds, but who are not ill and refusing to move out, should be obliged to pay for their accommodation. I am not sure whether this is the right approach but we sometimes try to invent a new approach to solve our problems in Ireland when we could copy what is happening in other countries. There is a solution worth examining which would immediately remedy some of the demands in regard to our hospital beds.