The Minister for Health, Stephen Donnelly, confirmed this morning on South East Radio that Wexford General Hospital would receive the promised 97 hospital beds.
The announcement is part of plans for an additional 706 acute hospital inpatient beds for the HSE Dublin and South East region
The plan has been introduced in response to the ongoing Health Service Capacity Review and aims to bring the number of beds in HSE Dublin Southeast from 2.2 per 100,000 people to 2.6. This will improve access to hospital in-patient care for patients across South-East Dublin, Carlow, Kilkenny, South Tipperary, Waterford, Wexford and most areas of Wicklow. It also delivers on the Minister’s commitment to ensure balanced regional bed capacity and to ensure patients across Ireland have equity of access (see table below).
The plan includes:
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195 new beds in St. Vincent’s University Hospital
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97 new beds in Wexford General Hospital
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98 new beds in University Hospital Waterford
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82 new beds in St. Luke’s General Hospital Kilkenny
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48 new beds in South Tipperary University Hospital
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18 new beds in Kilcreene Orthopaedic Hospital
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60 new beds (additional capacity) in the new National Maternity Hospital
The plan does not include rehab, subacute or specialist beds.
Minister Donnelly said:
“The next seven years will see significant expansion in hospital capacity across the Dublin and South East region. It is vital that our health service responses to the healthcare needs of the population, and we must deliver improvements that respond to changing demographics.
“I’m confident that this plan will help to deliver a better service for people across the South East.
“We’re building on the significant developments in the region in the last few years and with additional capacity in acute inpatient beds we are moving closer to our goal of ensuring that people receive the right care in the right place at the right time.”
The Acute Hospital Inpatient Bed Capacity Expansion Plan 2024-2031 is available here.
The table below illustrates the regional balance in bed capacity.
In 2018, the Department of Health undertook a Health Service Capacity Review which identified significant capacity deficits across the service. Since then, a total of 1,516 new beds have been planned, with 1,126 delivered up to the end of December 2023. Responding to further significant developments including demographic and epidemiological changes, the Department is currently updating this review in conjunction with the ESRI. Interim modelling has been conducted to identify additional acute inpatient capacity requirements.
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