Record health budget yields just 162 additional hospital beds, with more than half at one institution

Just 162 additional beds are being created in hospitals this year, a fraction of the number required to match population growth and ageing and to compensate for historical deficits.

Earlier this month, 261 inpatient beds were announced in the HSE capital plan for 2023, but no indication was given as to whether these were refurbishments of existing beds or net additions to stock.

After repeated requests for the information, the HSE has disclosed to The Irish Times that 162 of the acute beds listed in the plan are additional while 99 are replacements.

Sixty per cent of the additional beds are being provided in one institution, the Mater hospital in Dublin. A new wing of the hospital was opened by Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly last week, though none of the 98 beds in the building is ready yet.

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The health service needs an additional 1,000 beds immediately, along with 300 additional beds a year, to keep up with population pressures and make up for a historical under-supply, a report by the Economic and Social Research Institute estimated last month. There is no more space in existing hospitals so new builds will be required.

A spokeswoman for the Mater said the hospital has begun recruiting staff for the new beds and expects to begin treating the first patients from early May. Wards will be opened on a “rolling basis” thereafter.

Including the Mater, just five hospitals will benefit from the creation of additional beds this year. In Clonmel, South Tipperary General Hospital is set to gain 33 extra beds from works to refurbish existing accommodation to modern standards.

Mallow General Hospital is replacing a medical ward and adding 20 beds. Naas General Hospital is building 12 single rooms in a modular unit. The refurbishment of a 37-bed ward at the Coombe maternity hospital will result in the creation of one additional bed.

The HSE said that because most of these additions are single ensuite rooms rather than multi-bed wards, they will improve the experience of patients and help with infection control measures.

Construction of the new national children’s hospital will swallow one-third of the HSE’s €1 billion capital budget this year, thereby squeezing funding for other projects. Expected to open in 2025, the children’s hospital will have 46 more beds than are in the three Dublin children’s hospital at present, according to Children’s Health Ireland.*

With Mr Donnelly hoping to fast-track the provision of additional beds in modular units over the next two years, the HSE has issued an urgent tender for the construction of “up to 1,500″ beds at 15 sites.

Despite record health budgets in recent years, funding for new capacity has remained low. Last year, 74 new and replacement beds were completed, just 40 per cent of the target of 186, according to briefing documents prepared for new HSE chief executive Bernard Gloster. Construction inflation, recruitment issues and the cost of materials were blamed for the shortfall.

In 2020, as part of Covid pandemic investment in health, 1,156 beds were funded by the Government, with another 72 funded the following year. Over 200 of these beds have yet to be provided.

“It has taken three years to deliver on the big investment announced in 2020, and they’re still not finished,” said Sinn Fein health spokesman David Cullinane. “No significant additional capacity has been announced since then.”

Mr Cullinane said it was “very difficult” to find out the real number of beds in operation, and he questioned whether it has proved possible to staff all the beds that were promised.

*This article was ammended on April 28th