Dozens of hospital beds are lying empty in shuttered military hospitals while the country battles an overcrowding crisis and nurses contemplate strike action.
The HSE yesterday warned the flu season had “yet to peak” and the situation that has seen hundreds of sick people lying on trolleys for days on end could worsen. This is despite the Government spending hundreds of thousands of euro retooling some facilities at the start of Covid in a panic move to prepare them for reopening.
One of these was St Bricin’s in Dublin city centre, which is just a stone’s throw from the Mater hospital in North Dublin. Last night, Dr Cathal Berry, independent TD and former Head of the Military Medical school with the Defence Forces, slammed the waste of spare resources in military units.
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He believes at least two wards in St Bricin’s and four more in the Curragh hospital, Co Kildare, could be easily reopened, at least for step down services, at very short notice. He told the Irish Sunday Mirror: “The HSE paid about €500,000 upgrading fire, lighting and oxygen systems in St Bricin’s in April/May 2020 in a panic when Covid first struck.
“They planned to use it as a step down/ overflow facility if things got really bad in the Mater or St James’s. Now it’s just lying idle.”
Figures released by the HSE show the numbers waiting on trolleys in emergency departments on Friday night was 535, with 260 waiting in acute hospitals yesterday. The figures, taken at 8am yesterday, are 71% higher than the same date last year.
Calling on Health Minister Stephen Donnelly to act, Deputy Berry added: “St Bricin’s even had its own X-ray and ultrasound department up until three years ago when it was stripped out by the Department of Defence. There has been absolutely no accountability for these outrageous decisions.
“Now troops have to attend the Mater for these diagnostics, placing even more pressure on an already overwhelmed public health system.”
A spokesman for the HSE said: “To help support the health services over the winter period, the HSE has provided additional funding to Hospital Groups and CHOs to allow them access private beds in both private hospitals and private nursing homes.
“Currently there are 188 private hospital beds available to hospitals for use for clinically appropriate patients and the HSE is working to increase the number of available private hospital beds.”
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