Sir, – The Minister for Health has placed great store in the fact that more than €200 million will be saved by improved hospital efficiency, including reduced length of hospital stay and faster discharge of patients (Home News, September 18th).
However, he chooses to ignore the fact that hospitals across the State are full of clinically discharged patients, who are unable to leave hospital due to the unavailability of more appropriate community or step-down beds. Also, most patients’ needs cannot be met in the community due to cuts to home help hours and the public health nursing service.
Therefore, the true outcome of these much-lauded reforms is likely to be significantly more clinically discharged patients unable to gain freedom from our overcrowded hospitals. – Yours, etc,