Plan under review to tackle hospital overcrowding

Health service chiefs and Government officials are working on a multimillion euro plan aimed at tackling hospital overcrowding and delayed discharges.

Highly placed sources said a key element of the initiative would be reforming funding for the Fair Deal nursing home scheme. The move may involve ending the annual funding cap for Fair Deal and making the scheme “demand-led”.

The initiative is also understood to involve the provision of additional beds in hospitals particularly hard hit by problems of patients on trolleys in emergency departments.

Another element is believed to involve keeping open some long-stay beds provided initially on a temporary basis some weeks ago to deal with the trolley and overcrowding problems.

Deliberations

Informed sources said deliberations on an overall plan, which could cost more than €75 million, were continuing but had not yet been finalised.

The emergency department task force, convened by Minister for Health Leo Varadkar before Christmas to find long-term solutions to overcrowding, is scheduled to meet on Thursday.

HSE director general Tony O'Brien told the Oireachtas health committee last month the Fair Deal scheme was the "Achilles heel" of the health services.

He said waiting times for accessing the nursing home scheme had been reduced to 11 weeks in January on foot of a Government investment.

However he warned that unless extra funding was found, the waiting list for the scheme would grow to 2,200 people by the end of the year while waiting times would swell to 18-20 weeks.