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120 hospital beds idle as waiting lists grow

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Date Published: 05-Feb-2009

AS many as 120 beds are lying idle, wards remain shutdown and a dozen nursing positions are unfilled at Merlin Park Hospital and University Hospital Galway, the Connacht Tribune has learned.

Ironically the news comes just one week after this newspaper revealed there are more than 23,000 outpatients on waiting lists for the two city hospitals, and there are fears the situation could get worse as HSE West looks for more budget cutbacks this year.

The new figures show that 106 beds are empty at Merlin Park Hospital and at least 13 beds are empty at University Hospital Galway – the HSE West says some of the beds are closed because they are being ‘refurbished’.

The breakdown of the number of idle beds shows that officially 37 beds at Merlin Park are currently not in use. The HSE West says nine of these are idle because they are being ‘refurbished’, 27 are closed for ‘cost-containment’ and one is shut for ‘other reasons’.

A further 10 long-stay beds at Unit 5 and 6 of Merlin Park, earmarked for elderly patients, are idle despite the fact that as many as 80 elderly patients are on the waiting list and are being forced to fork out large sums of money to private nursing homes while they wait for the public beds to be opened.

Some elderly patients have been waiting for a bed since 2005.

The HSE said…

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