Waiting lists increase as beds lie idle

Date Published: 19-Jun-2008

SPECIALIST beds at the county’s two largest hospitals which cost more than €6.5 million to put in place have been lying idle since they were acquired last year.

The Health Service Executive’s cutbacks and ban on recruitment means that ten new beds at University Hospital Galway and three new beds at Portiuncula Hospital, Ballinasloe have been lying
idle since 2007, according to figures obtained by Galway East TD Ulick Burke.

And despite a chronic shortage of beds and long waiting lists for treatment in certain specialties the beds could remain unused for years to come as the Minster of Health has given no indication when
they will be opened.

The revelation of new beds lying empty will come as shock to the 1,300 patients in particular that had to endure a night on a trolley in the corridor of UHG’s A&E Department in the first four months
of 2008.

The figures show that six beds were supplied last year at a cost of €4.6 million for the Cardiac Unit of UHG. A further three beds were supplied for the Burns Unit at a cost of €1.62 million and one Intensive Care Unit bed at a cost of €447,000 at the city hospital.

Three beds at Portiuncula’s new Special Care Baby Unit at a cost of a little more than €2 million were also supplied last year. All of the 13 new bedsare lying empty and are unlikely to be used until…