Review of acute hospital services in the Mid - Health Service Executive

Review of acute hospital services in HSE Mid-West
An action plan for acute and community services
This analysis in Table 16 shows that, for residents in the Mid-West, the regional ‘centre of
excellence’ would need an acute in-patient bed capacity of some 642 inpatient beds based
on a standard 85% occupancy level. This comprises 478 beds for emergency in-patient
admissions and 164 beds for elective in-patient admissions. These figures include
admissions to tertiary services, but as already stated, some tertiary activity may in the future
be provided at a tertiary centre outside the Mid-West.
Site configuration
Given the above analysis in Table 16, the regional ‘centre of excellence’ would need to have
the capacity to accommodate 642 in-patient beds.
The Dooradoyle site currently has 472 beds (375 in-patient and 97 day case beds), with
development plans for transferring obstetrics, and for additional beds through the co-location
project 40 . This would significantly increase the site’s bed base.
If sufficient accommodation could be provided and the current site could be reconfigured,
then the Dooradoyle site should be designated as the regional ‘centre of excellence’
for the Mid-West.
However, consideration must be given to the economies of scale in developing the existing
site to provide a modern, ‘fit for purpose’ facility, or whether a new purpose-built regional
‘centre of excellence’ should be developed. The list of reconfiguration/refurbishment
(excluding any private co-location build programme), is substantial and includes:
• New obstetrics, midwifery and neonatal unit;
• New elective orthopaedics unit;
• New or refurbished A&E;
• New or refurbished critical care unit;
• Complete ward refurbishment to infection control standards; and
• New additional in-patient beds, totalling 135.
The HSE may wish to undertake a high level appraisal study to examine the feasibility of
reconfiguration/refurbishment against a new build option.
40
The capacity of the co-location project for the Dooradoyle site in the Mid-West is indicated to be 138 inpatient beds and 34
day case beds, HSE press announcement, 5 th July 2007.
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