Gino Kenny (Dublin Mid West, People Before Profit Alliance)
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37. To ask the Minister for Health if he is aware that an organisation (details supplied) recently stated that it has yet to see any of 1,500 additional public hospital beds across 15 acute public hospital sites he announced in April 2023 and that it sought clarification as to how the 1,541 beds due by the end of 2028 and the 2,997 beds due by 2031 announced recently by himself differ from those already promised in 2023; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25785/24]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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I recently published the Acute Hospital Inpatient Bed Capacity Expansion Plan 2024-2031. This recognised capacity already delivered to and committed by Government while also addressing medium to longer terms capacity needs.

This plan was informed by HSE modelling and a site by site assessment as well as ongoing work by the ESRI.

I initiated and developed the Plan as I recognise that we need to increase our bed capacity to meet the healthcare needs of our growing and ageing population.

Since 2020 an additional 1,218 additional new acute inpatient beds have been opened to date, representing the largest expansion of public acute hospital capacity in the history of the health service.

The Plan aim is to deliver 3,352 new beds (2,997 net new hospital beds and 355 replacement beds), with the location of these new beds across the six regional health areas. These beds are in addition to the 1,015 hospital beds under construction and/or committed to, bringing the total number of new beds to be delivered by 2031 to 4,367.

The Plan has been developed with the following principles and criteria, in line with the Department of Health’s Strategic Health Investment Framework (SHIF):

• Expanding capacity to meet current and future need and aligned with clinical strategies/plans;
• Balanced regional health capacity;
• Value for money, a focus on delivery timeframes and climate impact through use of both traditional and modern methods of construction; and
• investment per hospital that is contingent on each hospital being able to demonstrate productivity with existing allocation of capacity and resources.
• The health service has delivered significant improvements to people’s health outcomes in recent years and must continue to deliver improved outcomes while also managing an increasing and ageing population, as well as growing demand for healthcare and new treatments.
• Implementation of this Acute Inpatient Bed Capacity Expansion Plan will contribute significantly towards this.