Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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365. To ask the Minister for Health the number of meetings he has held with the HSE regarding the 500 beds to be delivered in the winter of 2018-2019; his plans for same; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13765/18]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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One of the key recommendations of the recently published Health Service Capacity Review is that in order to reach international standards of bed occupancy levels, the acute hospital system needs additional beds frontloaded in the short term.

As a response to this, in January, I requested the HSE to prioritise the development of a plan to identify the location and mix of beds across the hospital system which can be opened and staffed this year and into 2019, to alleviate overcrowding in our hospital ED’s and improve preparedness for next winter.

Since then, officials in my Department have been meeting regularly with their counterparts in the HSE on advancing the plan, and I recently received an update from the Departmental/HSE working group on progress in relation to the development of the proposals. I very regularly meet with the HSE on this and all matters to do with both scheduled and unscheduled care.  

I look forward to receiving the plan, which I understand is at an advanced stage, in the coming weeks.