An independent review of how beds are managed in all the State's main hospitals will be presented to nursing unions today. The unions are concerned that inappropriate bed management is central to the regular crises in accident and emergency departments.
The Health Service Employers' Agency agreed last year to engage independent consultants to carry out the review, in part settlement of industrial action taken by nurses in protest at overcrowding in A&E units.
Mr David Hughes, deputy general secretary of the Irish Nurses' Organisation, said last night that bed management was critical given the shortage of beds in the system. Some 3,000 beds were removed from the system during cutbacks in the 1980s and while over 600 were replaced last year in line with the new health strategy, the shortfall is still critical.
The INO has sought the appointment of senior nurses as bed managers to speed up admissions and discharges and Mr Hughes hopes today's report will deliver on this.
A threat of industrial action by INO members in A&E departments nationwide was temporarily deferred on Friday following talks at the Labour Relations Commission. It was agreed to review practices in hospitals over a four-week period from December 28th to January 19th to determine what factors had led to a repeat this month of last winter's overcrowding in several A&E units.
Mr Hughes said the INO would monitor the audit and it reserved the right, if overcrowding recurred, to recommence industrial action without notice.
In a separate development, it was reported yesterday that hundreds of additional hospital consultants are to be appointed under proposals drawn up by a Government-appointed team looking at medical manpower across the State. Its aim is to ensure all public patients get a consultant provided rather than just a consultant-led service.
However, if the plan drawn up by the National Taskforce on Medical Staffing is implemented, it will result in many hospitals not in large urban areas being downgraded. It proposes one regional hospital for every 350,000 people.
Details of the taskforce report, which is due to be sent to the Minister for Health, Mr Martin, next month, were outlined in yesterday's Sunday Tribune. It said the plan would see many existing general hospitals scaled back to operating only during the day with GPs and specialist nurses providing night-time medical cover for patients.
Meanwhile, BUPA Ireland announced on Saturday that it was increasing the price of its private health insurance premiums by 14 per cent from the beginning of March. Its competitor, the VHI, announced an 18 per cent increase in its premiums last September.
BUPA Ireland's managing director, Mr Martin O'Rourke, attributed the price rise to the increased cost of private beds in public hospitals. "In the last year we have seen the Government impose increased charges for hospital beds of 45 per cent. This was done without either negotiation or consultation," he said.