Published: Thursday, 19th November, 2009 1:55pm

Over 90 hospital beds closed across the Midlands

by Karen Downey

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In excess of 90 hospital beds are closed at hospitals serving the Midlands region. A total of 91 beds are closed at Portiuncula Hospital Ballinasloe, Roscommon County Hospital, the Longford/Westmeath Hospital Mullingar and the Midlands Regional Hospital Tullamore.

The majority of bed closures are at Mullingar, where 41 beds remain closed, followed by Tullamore, where 27 beds are closed, Portiuncula where 12 beds are closed and Roscommon with eleven bed closures.

And while a number of beds were reopened at Portiuncula almost two weeks ago due to a large number of patients being left on hospital trolleys, an internal HSE report revealed that as of Wednesday of last week, November 11, there were still 12 beds closed at the hospital.

All 12 of the beds that remain closed at Portiuncula are closed as part of the HSE's 'cost containment' plans and all 12 are medical beds. Of the 27 beds closed at the Midlands Regional Hospital in Tullamore, 12 are for cost containment and 15 are seasonal closures, while at Roscommon four of the eleven beds closed are for cost containment purposes and seven for refurbishment/maintenance.

The same HSE report revealed that there were 23 beds closed in Mullingar, but the situation at the Longford/Westmeath Hospital has deteriorated further since then, with 41 beds now closed at the hospital, according to Professor Sean Murphy at the hospital and Labour TD Deputy Willie Penrose. This represents a fifth of the total of emergency beds at the hospital.

Professor Murphy said: "This drastic cut in emergency beds, represents what I would term a 'pre-emptive decapitation' of our ability to provide emergency care for our patients in Mullingar."

"I would contend that we will not have enough acute emergency beds in Mullingar and that the 20% reduction in same makes it 100% certain that this hospital will be unable to cope with the surge of acute admissions seen here every winter."

The HSE is denying that it has cut 41 beds from the hospital's quotient, and has said this week that because it is opening a number of day beds, the actual net drop in bed numbers comes to just 21 - ten per cent of the hospital's emergency beds.

"The increase in day beds from 11 to 24 will actually mean that Mullingar Hospital will treat more patients in 2010 than it treated in 2009," the HSE said in a statement issued on Friday.

But Professor Murphy is accusing the HSE of trying to confuse people, by interchangeably referring to day and acute beds as if they were the same thing.

"The concern here is the reduction of 41 emergency or acute beds. If we had a thousand extra day beds, that would not help the acute emergency admissions (often elderly) who present to this hospital," a furious Prof. Murphy said.

The HSE has said that increasing the number of day beds at the hospital will mean that both elective general surgery and elective gynaecology will be protected: "The additional day capacity will also accommodate an increase in cardiology, respiratory and radiology patients. The Medical Assessment Unit, which has received much praise, will also cater for a greater number of patients."

Professor Murphy said he welcomes the provision of the additional day beds: "(They) are most welcome and needed for the types of patients they are designed to deal with ie day cases which in the main are elective or planned procedures - but certainly are not acute medical or surgical admissions."

He pointed out that day beds are open just from 8am to 6pm Monday to Friday.

"It really is a bit smart to suggest that extra day beds will be of any help to acute admissions from A&E who can present at any hour of the day or night on any day of the week all year round."

Labour's Deputy Willie Penrose said: "This has been done without formally discussing these steps with the consultants physicians who are already concerned that the number of beds being closed is grossly excessive, and where such decisions will cause problems for them from the perspective of safety and acceptability.

"What astounds me is that surely prior to decisions of this magnitude being made that discussions would be held with the consultant physicians, nurses and other staff, and that an impact analysis would be carried out. Further, winter time is usually the period, when there are a significant number of acute admissions, but it beggars belief that 41 acute beds are going to be lost to Mullingar Hospital which has regional status, especially where such beds are used to accommodate acutely sick patients who attend the hospital daily."