Michael Mullins (Fine Gael)
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I welcome the Minister of State at the Department of Finance, Deputy Simon Harris.

Darragh O'Brien (Fianna Fail)
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I welcome the Minister of State. I am slightly bemused that he is answering on this matter, which concerns Beaumont Hospital. I have a lot of regard for the Minister of State as we have debated a number of things and taken Bills together. None the less I am extremely disappointed that neither the Minister for Health, Deputy Leo Varadkar, nor the Minister of State, Deputy Kathleen Lynch, is here to discuss one of the busiest hospitals in the country, which is effectively at crisis point. I feel like withdrawing the matter but in deference to the Minister of State, who has given his time, I will not do so, although I will write to the Minister for Health.

Beaumont Hospital has effectively decided to shut down 33 acute surgical beds and to reallocate them for elderly care. These surgical beds are for patients undergoing colorectal, heart, orthopaedic and gynaecological surgery, many of whom are acute and cancer patients. The decision was taken by management without any consultation with staff at the hospital.It is absolutely nuts. I have read Beaumont Hospital's statement which says its key priority is to utilise the capacity and resources available to all patients, both medical and surgical. No one will disagree with that. However, what we are doing here is robbing Peter to pay Paul.

Of course, elderly care is very important, but it is not being funded properly. This flows from the disaster a number of months ago with the fair deal scheme, elderly care and a lack of places. The Minister, Deputy Leo Varadkar, decided to do something about it instead of being merely a commentator, which he is on most health issues. What is happening now, however, is that the hospitals are being told to come up with the extra beds. Taking them away from acute surgical care is insane. The Government will come back and say this is not a big deal and that the number of beds has not been reduced. I am not a fool and I know the same number of beds are there, but some have been taken away from acute medical care. The fact that surgical beds are gone will result in the immediate loss of ten high observation beds that the Hardwicke ward provides as well as five single rooms that are used to nurse surgical patients who may require isolation for specific surgical reasons. That is what is being lost here and it is genuinely shocking. As a Dubliner and Dublin's spokesperson for my party, it is my local hospital. The staff cannot understand this. At least 30 consultants signed a letter which was sent to management and the Minister to say that this was a really bad idea. The nursing staff only found out informally the night before that this would happen. There was no consultation with them. The INMO sat down with representatives of nursing staff and senior management and was told it would be given a detailed report setting out the rationale for these changes. That was on 5 June. Today, is 18 June but nothing has been received.

The Minister of State, Deputy Simon Harris, is always very welcome to the House. I have outlined the case so far and am interested to get the answer. I am incredibly disappointed that the Minister for Health, Deputy Leo Varadkar, and the Minister of State, Deputy Kathleen Lynch, do not see this issue as important enough to actually come to the House and answer questions on. I will reconfigure this Commencement matter and table it again next week, or until such time as the Minister, Deputy Varadkar, who is responsible for this, comes to the House to reply. Nevertheless, I am interested to hear what the Minister of State will say on behalf of the Department of Health as an office holder in the Department of Finance.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I thank Senator Darragh O'Brien for welcoming me to the Seanad. I take the point he makes. I am taking the matter on behalf of my colleague, the Minister for Health, Deputy Leo Varadkar, who regrets he cannot be here today as he is on Government business. He has, therefore, asked me to deliver his response to the Senator's Commencement matter. He thanks the Senator for raising the issue today.

Darragh O'Brien (Fianna Fail)
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I am sure he does.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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The Minister has asked me to reassure the House that there has been no reduction in the number of patient beds in Beaumont Hospital, a point the Senator made himself. While 140 beds spread across four surgical wards had historically been intended for surgical patients, in reality a significant number of these beds have been consistently occupied by medical patients, many of whom are frail and elderly. In line with national programmes for treating frail and elderly patients and for surgical procedures, a decision has been made to reorganise a number of wards at Beaumont Hospital to provide a more comfortable experience for all patients. One of these four wards has now been allocated for frail and elderly patients who require medical attention only while the remaining three have been ring-fenced for surgical patients. This reorganisation will provide a more comfortable setting for elderly patients while also providing greater certainty on bed availability for surgical procedures. It will also contribute to an improvement in waiting lists.

Delayed discharges at Beaumont are, of course, a factor in the availability of bed capacity and have no doubt led to a strain on resources. However, on foot of the ED task force, which the Minister convened in December last year, additional funding of €74 million was provided in 2015 to help ease these types of pressures in acute hospitals. The funding will increase the number of long-term nursing home care places and reduce waiting times for the funding of such places. It will also increase the number of transitional care beds and home care packages to provide viable supports for those no longer needing acute hospital care. Significant progress has been made to date on the overall plan and I am pleased to inform the House that delayed discharges are reducing steadily, with a 23% reduction since November 2014.

In addition to measures already taken, the HSE has also been working with social care and has developed a frail-elderly project team. The team is led by a community geriatrician with a focus on the provision of care in day hospitals and nursing homes rather than in hospital emergency departments. As the Senator said, Beaumont Hospital has one of the busiest emergency departments in Ireland, providing services to over 50,000 patients every year. Since January there has been an increase in the number of older patients requiring emergency admission. In addition to working closely with the community, the hospital has undertaken a number of initiatives internally within various teams and departments and externally with the HSE to improve the patient pathway both through the emergency department and the hospital. Beaumont Hospital's key priority is to utilise the capacity and resources available to provide the best possible treatment to all patients, both medical and surgical.

I will ensure that the transcript of this debate and the comments of Senator Darragh O'Brien are brought to the attention of the Minister, Deputy Varadkar.

Darragh O'Brien (Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister of State for outlining the reply. It is most interesting that what the Minister, Deputy Varadkar, gave the Minister of State to read to the House is an identical copy of the statement issued by Beaumont Hospital yesterday. Is the Minister for Health simply a nodding dog here? He has not even bothered to produce any new information at all. It is an identical copy of what Beaumont Hospital issued yesterday. I would expect more from the Minister.

I thank the Minister of State for attending. He is doing his job. However, the response from the Government is wholly inadequate and does nothing to allay my fears or, more importantly, the fears of the nursing staff, consultants and doctors within Beaumont Hospital who have a duty of care to patients. The problem here is that 33 acute surgical beds are being removed in the hospital with Ireland's second longest inpatient waiting lists. Whatever way one looks at it, that is a reduction. It is most unfortunate. I will be raising the matter again. While I thank the Minister of State for coming to the House to give that answer, it is, unfortunately, word for word the answer Beaumont Hospital issued yesterday.