Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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780. To ask the Minister for Health if an annual commissioning plan for additional hospital beds will be brought forward with regard to the national development plan and the health service capacity review. [36080/18]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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The Health Service Capacity Review indicates that Ireland has among the highest acute bed occupancy rates in the developed world at 94%, significantly ahead of the OECD average of 77%.

The National Development Plan (NDP) provides for a major increase in capacity across the health system, including the development of new dedicated elective-only hospitals in Dublin, Galway and Cork. The aim of these elective-only hospitals is to both increase capacity and to provide for a better separation of scheduled and unscheduled care.

Increasing capacity alone will not address the challenges faced, but on the basis of significant reform over the next 10-15 years, the report recommends an additional 2,600 acute beds by 2031. The NDP provides for the full complement of beds by 2028 - 3 years ahead of schedule.

As a first step toward implementing the recommendations of the Health Service Capacity Review recommendations, I have asked my Department to work with the HSE to identify the location and mix of beds which could be frontloaded in 2018 and into 2019 and 2020 to alleviate overcrowding in our hospital Emergency Departments.

My Department has received proposals from the HSE, which identify in the region of 600 additional acute beds and 270 additional residential care beds, to be phased in between 2018 and 2020. These proposals are under consideration by my Department.

The implementation of this proposal will require a mix of capital investment, including a programme of modular builds. A key element of the proposal is the identification of the workforce requirements and the development of plans to meet these requirements. I have now signed off on a submission in relation to these proposals. The next steps in relation to the resourcing of the plans are currently under consideration within the Department.