Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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Question 359: To ask the Minister for Health if he has an estimate for the number of acute hospital inpatient beds that will be closed as a result of the cuts to the health budget in 2012. [40755/11]

James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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There are some 13,000 acute hospital beds, including some 1,800 day beds, in the Irish public acute hospital system. The exact number available for use at any one time varies according to a number of factors, including planned levels of activity, refurbishment and infection control. Beds are also closed to control expenditure because, like all other public agencies, hospitals have to operate within budget.

The criteria for counting bed closures and methods vary between hospitals. Instead of having a debate about the exact number of beds that are judged to be open or closed at any one time, I believe we must concentrate on getting the best possible services for patients from the budgets available to us. This means we need to focus on how beds are used, on the throughput of patients, on reducing length of stay to international norms and on having as many procedures as possible carried out as day cases rather than inpatient work.

The work of the SDU, together with implementation of the Clinical Care Programmes in the HSE, will help to improve the efficiency of our hospitals, allowing us to treat as many patients as possible within budget. I believe that pursuing efficiencies through these means will be a far more productive approach than debating the number of beds open or closed at any one time.

The emphasis for the HSE in 2012 will continue to be to make the most effective use of acute bed capacity through shorter length of stay, increased rates of day-of-surgery admission and more day surgery. In this way the acute hospital system can ensure that, within the level of resources available, it facilitates the maximum number of patients with safe, effective and efficient care.