Ireland must replace "outdated practices" in the health service with more modern ways that reflect the needs of patients, Health Service Executive chief Prof Brendan Drumm said today.
He was speaking as a new report revealed the number of acute hospital beds for public patients would have to increase to 20,000 to meet demand by 2020.
The report found that under the current model of care and based on demographic trends, demand by public patients for acute hospital facilities would rise by 60 per cent over the next 12 years, requiring a 40 per cent increase in acute hospital bed numbers.
According to the HSE the capital cost of providing such increases would be about €4 billion - not including the cost of staffing these facilities.
Prof Brendan Drumm, HSE
It said hospitals must minimise the time patients are in hospital to make better use of resources and reduce dependence on acute care.
The Acute Hospital Bed Capacity Review said Ireland must reduce an over-reliance on acute hospitals that is "out of step with best international practice".Hospital stays should be minimised as they can be "disruptive to families, inconvenient for patients, increase the risk of infection, and they can impact on important social networks and delay recovery, especially for elderly people", the report states.
It says Ireland must also rebalance its spending in favour of expanding community-based services so the public can access care more conveniently and closer to home.
It says 39 per cent of in-patients could be treated in an alternative setting to an acute hospital - many in their own homes.
The review also recommends that Ireland increase the number of patients seen on a day-case basis. The average number of day cases in Ireland is 12 per cent below the OECD average and ranges between 15 per cent and 69 per cent.
The report also notes that no discharge date is planned for some 83 per cent of patients. It recommends that hospitals carry out more planning in this area.
The HSE said the review "highlights that these practices are already working well in a number of Irish hospitals and introducing them to all public hospitals could be done relatively quickly".
Prof Brendan Drumm said that modernising hospital practices was essential. "To develop a world class health system we have to replace outdated practices with modern ways of doing things that reflect the needs of patients," he said.
"The review tells us that more resources are not the only answer to improving access and reducing waiting times. Hospitals can reduce waiting times by simply modernising the way staff manage the passage of patients in and through their hospitals, as is consistently achieved in other hospital systems," he said.