The HSE has unveiled its winter initiative, which will see 55 extra beds being provided at hospitals with chronic overcrowding issues, as well as extra homecare provided.
The extra beds will be provided at the Midland Regional Hospital in Tullamore, Beaumont Hospital, Naas General Hospital, University Hospital Waterford and in the Midland Regional Hospital in Mullingar.
The new initiative will be launched in the October-November period, just before the cold weather arrives in earnest.
The overcrowding issue has blighted Irish hospitals for years now, and nothing that the Government has attempted has worked thus far. It’s been a decade since former Minister for Health Mary Harney deemed the overcrowding to be a ‘national emergency,’ yet that situation has steadily become worse year on year.