Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

The safety net arrangements are being used to utilise capacity within the private hospitals in Galway and a number of other beds are in train for next year. The health service capacity review was clear on the need for major investment in additional capacity in acute and community hospitals combined with a widescale reform of the manner and location of where health services were provided. The current winter plan builds on significant investment in last year's plan, which committed to delivering 1,146 additional beds over the number at the start of 2020. Of those additional beds, 800 are now in place and a further 50 are expected to be delivered by the end of December. Six additional critical care beds have opened in Galway and 12 cardiothoracic beds are due to open early next year.

The health sector is expected to face significant challenges this winter in dealing with Covid-19, the presence of which places additional and unpredictable demands on our hospital systems, including staffing pressures. The Senator accepts and understands that it is not all about beds. Reducing pressure on acute hospitals also requires providing egress arrangements such as additional nursing home places, step-down care and, as he mentioned, providing pathways for people to avoid going into emergency departments because that is their only choice. The Senator stated that Westdoc was under pressure. If people cannot access primary care and their only option is to attend the emergency department and wait for hours, that is not something that they want to do or that the health service wants to happen. The Senator is right that there needs to be a focus, not just on the hospitals themselves, but also on the reasons people are attending hospital and cannot leave hospital.