David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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1071. To ask the Minister for Health the number and cost of retaining the new beds added in 2020 to year end; and the full-year cost of retaining those beds for 2021. [18988/20]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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The Programme for Government, Our Shared Future, commits to continuing investment in our health care services in line with the recommendations of the Health Service Capacity Review and the commitments in Project Ireland 2040.

The Health Service Capacity Review 2018 found that the net requirement in combination with health system reform is for an additional 2,590 hospital beds by 2031 (inpatient, day case, critical care). The Review identified an immediate requirement for 1,290 beds to address overcrowding and to ensure hospitals operated at 85% occupancy in line with other OECD countries. Approximately 770 additional beds have been provided to date. The National Development Plan provides for the addition of the full 2,590 beds by 2027.

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 22 June 2020 that an additional 324 acute beds have opened since March, bringing the current total of acute beds in the system to 11,597 excluding critical care capacity. It should be noted that this is the total current bed capacity. However, beds are unavailable when they are temporarily closed for reasons such as infection control, maintenance/refurbishment, or staffing shortages.

Furthermore, 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.

Finally, the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF) agreed to support the marginal costs of funding additional beds for three months to the end of March 2020 at a cost of €5.8 million. The HSE confirmed 197 of those beds had opened as planned. A further extension of this agreement has been approved until the 31st December 2020 at an estimated cost of €12 million.

The future opening of additional acute bed capacity will be considered in the context of the Estimates discussions for the years concerned and on the priorities in the HSE's National Service Plans for those years.

In relation to the Deputy's question regarding the cost of retaining additional capacity, as this is a service matter, I have asked the HSE to respond to the Deputy directly.