About 60 beds are to be closed at Dublin’s Mater hospital this month and a further 20 may be closed later in the year, it was confirmed yesterday.
News of the closures, in an effort to contain costs, comes just a month after the other major teaching hospital on the northside of Dublin – Beaumont Hospital – confirmed it was closing 52 inpatient beds and would also have rolling theatre closures for the remainder of the year. It has also emerged that further bed closures at Beaumont are now plannecd for later in the year.
Asked about its plans to close beds in the HSE's Dublin North East region after internal correspondence on the issue was seen by The Irish Times, the HSE said funding for hospitals in the region had been reduced by approximately €65.2 million this year.
It said hospitals have included bed closures as part of “their breakeven plans” for this year but stressed this reduction in beds “must also be seen in the context of the reduction of delayed discharges” in the hospitals, which was freeing up beds which would otherwise be unavailable.
It said the number of delayed discharge patients in Beaumont was down to 111 from a peak of 176 in November 2009, while the number of delayed discharges in the Mater had dropped from 121 in June 2009 to 72 at present.
The HSE said: “Beaumont has now closed 62 inpatient beds and plans further bed closures as more long-term care patients are discharged.”
It added: “The Mater has also commenced bed closures. Five beds were closed on Friday, 21st May, and further closures will be phased in, bringing the total to 60 by the start of July. A further 20 beds may be closed later in the year.”
It said the HSE’s 2010 service plan commits to a 5.6 per cent reduction in inpatient admissions and a 6.5 per cent increase in day cases this year. “A reduction in bed numbers is therefore to be expected as inpatient admission avoidance measures, such as higher day case provision and enhanced access to diagnostic services, become operational.”
A letter from Stephen Mulvany, regional director of operations in the HSE Dublin North East region, to Laverne McGuinness, a national director of the HSE, said the breakeven plans for all hospitals in his region “involve bed closures”. He said the closures could result in longer waiting times in hospital emergency departments in the short term.
“A period of adjustment is involved, as the hospital adjusts to the new levels of bed availability. It is quite probable that during this period of adjustment, which may last some weeks, the recent improvements in emergency department performance will diminish and, in fact, emergency department performance may deteriorate,” he wrote.
He added in his letter of May 13th which has been seen by this newspaper, that “the system must be prepared for any resulting negative reports”.
The Mater, in a statement, said it was in ongoing discussions with the HSE about the measures required to meet its reduced budget for 2010. It said its scope for reducing costswas very limited.
“To date five beds have been closed and a further 15 will be closed by the end of this week,” it said.
Sinn Féin’s health spokesman Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin said a whole range of services were to be closed at Cavan and Monaghan hospitals over the summer months. He said it was “obscene” that patients were suffering cuts while the Governmenthad poured another €2 billion of taxpayers money into Anglo Irish Bank.
The HSE’s chief executive Prof Brendan Drumm signalled widespread acute hospital bed closures earlier this year when he said he expected 1,100 beds to close.