Surgical beds to be ‘ring fenced’

By Gary Culliton
gary.culliton@imt.ie

The HSE is to introduce arrangements whereby surgical beds will be “ring fenced”, the Executive’s Director of Quality and Clinical Care has pledged.

Dr Barry White explained that the objective was to increase the proportion of patients who are admitted on the day of their procedure. “We would ringfence the beds for surgery, provided we had an average length of stay (ALOS) that was consistent with international practice,” he commented.

“The surgeons have told us it’s feasible and that this is a great opportunity to improve waiting and cancellation issues,” added the HSE Director.

Dr White explained that it might be appropriate for some people to come in early, before an operation, if they had some medical condition in need of stabilisation. However, the majority of patients could enter hospital on the day of their surgery.

“One of the most effective ways of achieving that is to ring fence the bed and ensure it’s available for that patient on the day of surgery,” Dr White stated.

The average length of time patients stay in hospitals in Ireland is relatively long, compared with international figures. Many inpatient hospital beds are being used for two types of patients — those who are simply waiting for procedures, access to assessments and test results, and those who are waiting for non-acute, long stay and rehabilitation care.

The HSE claims that with its new integrated health system, patients should get into, through and out of the health service more quickly. People would spend less time in hospital and more time being cared for in their communities or in their own homes.

“The focus is on solutions that are implementable in the short term, rather than high-level strategy,” Dr White added.