Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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636. To ask the Minister for Health if his attention has been drawn to a recommendation by a person (details supplied); if his attention has been further drawn to the fact that in the Critical Care Strategic Plan 2020 and HSE National Service Plan 2021 there was no mention of development in Letterkenny University Hospital; and if he will ask for a review of these plans given the plan increases critical care beds from 255 to 446 an increase of 191 beds in Dublin, Limerick and Cork and not one for the northwest. [43483/21]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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The Strategic Plan for Critical Care, which was noted by Government in 2020, aims to address the acknowledged deficit in critical care capacity in our acute hospital system. The Plan provides for an increase in capacity from the 2020 baseline of 255 critical care beds, to 446 over time.

Funding of €52m was provided by Government in Budget 2021 to commence implementation of Phase 1 of the Plan. This provides for the permanent retention of 40 additional critical care beds which were funded temporarily in 2020 as part of the Covid response, including one bed in Letterkenny. It also provides for the opening of a further 26 beds in new build capacity in Limerick, the Mater and Tallaght hospitals. The HSE has advised that 41 in total of the additional beds are now open, bringing baseline capacity to 296 although the number of beds open on any given day fluctuates as a result of a variety of factors.

The Plan is clinically led, and aligns with the hub-and-spoke model of care set out by the National Clinical Programme in Critical Care. It also addresses the recommendations of the Health Service Capacity Review in respect of critical care, and is fully in line with the vision set out in Sláintecare of "right care, right place, right time".