Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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752. To ask the Minister for Health the number of additional beds which have been opened in the public hospital system since the onset of Covid-19; and the current number of hospital beds in the public hospital system. [9612/20]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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The Department of Health is working with the HSE to increase acute capacity in hospitals throughout the country. In the context of the current COVID-19 Pandemic response, the HSE advised on 24 May 2020 that and additional 324 acute beds have opened since March, bringing the current total of acute beds in the system to 11,907 excluding critical care capacity. The HSE’s Critical Care Programme Census from September 2019 reported that there were 255 adult critical care beds in public hospitals. At an early stage of the Covid-19 pandemic, additional funding was provided to the HSE to increase the number of critical care beds. 42 critical care beds have been funded since March in addition to the baseline critical care capacity already identified in hospitals.

In line with the HSE’s Critical Care Major Surge Preparedness Planning Framework, surge plans for further capacity for each Hospital Group have been developed in order to create additional capacity if required. The HSE confirmed that this included 2,118 acute beds (1,633 day case beds and 485 inpatient beds).