The Health Service Executive is to issue a tender in the coming days to purchase beds in private hospitals to help the public system cope with emergency department overcrowding. The proposal was shared at yesterday’s meeting of the HSE’s Emergency Department Taskforce.
The HSE has set a new national target of no more than 320 people on trolleys per day – this is to be the new norm by the year end as additional permanent bed capacity is put in place. There were 385 patients on trolleys yesterday – 87 of them in University Hospital Limerick, 13 in TUH Clonmel and 2 in Nenagh hospital.
The tender for temporary extra capacity from private hospitals for beds to cater for ED attendances is also to include private hospitals helping with waiting lists for elective and non-emergency services in order to reduce pressures in public hospitals.
The Health Minister Stephen Donnelly is seeking a change to hospital rosters and is seeking a seven day working roster instead of the current weekend on-call emergency roster. The CEO of the HSE Bernard Gloster also supports this change
The taskforce is to meet again before the end of October.
