Ireland

€600 million plan could see 12,000 extra healthcare workers by next year

<span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: sans-serif, Arial, Verdana, &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;; ">There are currently 282 ICU beds across the Republic's hospitals, however under the plan there will be an extra 17 critical care beds</span>
There are currently 282 ICU beds across the Republic's hospitals, however under the plan there will be an extra 17 critical care beds There are currently 282 ICU beds across the Republic's hospitals, however under the plan there will be an extra 17 critical care beds

The HSE has unveiled its "unprecedented" and "ambitious" winter plan which could see the recruitment of an additional 12,000 staff and hundreds of extra acute beds by early next year.

More than 570 new beds will be provided under the plan as well as 4.7 million additional home support hours.

It will involve additional spending of €600 million for the rest of this year and into early next year.

There are currently 282 ICU beds across the Republic's hospitals, however under the plan there will be an extra 17 critical care beds.

HSE chief operations officer Anne O'Connor said they plan to recruit more than 12,000 staff.

"We are being very ambitious with this plan, we have to be because of the challenge we are facing," she added.

By the end of the year the HSE hope to recruit an additional 5,000 staff with half of those brought in for testing and tracing.

"Next year we have a further ambitious target of just over 7,500 staff across all disciplines."

The plan also pledges to cut trolley count by 30 per cent and provide 20,000 extra planned procedures.

Dr O'Connor said there will be almost 45,000 additional cancer appointments across all services.

HSE chief executive Paul Reid said the months ahead will be "more difficult" than ever.

He said: "We are living with Covid-19, we are living differently, however we have planned differently and we have to take confidence in our winter plan.

"By ensuring agility and innovative healthcare measures, we can prioritise the health and wellbeing of our staff and the public, through the provision of healthcare pathways in the community and in our hospitals."

He warned, however of the increasing volumes of positive cases in the last seven days, over 1,930 cases, an increase of 32 per cent compared to the previous week.

Mr Reid also said there is an increase in hospital admissions, which include 110 people between September 8 and 21, with 15 patients admitted to ICU.

Of those cases, 53 are aged 65 and over.

There have been 13 hospital admissions of people aged under the age of 25.

Mr Reid also warned about the growth of people's contacts, rising to an average of six people compared with two in recent weeks.

Mr Reid added that all services within hospitals have been restored, but warned that a small number of Covid-19 cases can have an impact.

He said that three wards in Dublin's Beaumont Hospital were forced to shut because of the need to isolate Covid patients.

"I want to make a big plea to the public to support us in this plan," he added.

"We do really need to protect our health care workers as we go into the winter."

He said there is an increased number of healthcare workers who have had to self-isolate with Covid-19.

"There is an urgent need for everyone to take this seriously again," he added.

He called on people to protect frontline workers by reducing their number of contacts and the people visiting their home.

Speaking about the plan, Mr Reid described it as an "unprecedented investment" for health services in the Republic.

He added: "It's about protecting the public, patients and staff and the continued functioning of our services and providing extra capacity to our acute system."

He said that, as well as the capacity to carry out 100,000 Covid-19 tests per week, they have additional surge capacity of 2,000 tests per day in the German laboratories.

Mr Reid said Covid-19 provides "unpredictability" and that the government investment gives health services the support to build resistance and deal with coronavirus.

Minister of State for Mental Health and Older People Mary Butler said: "The investment in the plan of over €600 million demonstrates how seriously the government's view the challenges that we can all see are coming toward us over the winter period.

"It is vital that the winter can achieves essentially of building capacity, ensuring that services continue and supporting and enhancing alternative care pathways, especially those in the community."