HSE plans to open nine admission lounges within six months

Overflow facilities: The Health Service Executive (HSE) has said that plans for new admission lounges and the provision of additional space for patients in accident and emergency departments awaiting beds will be put in place in nine hospitals over the next six months.

The planned new facilities are effectively overflow areas to accommodate patients needing admission outside of the confines of the A&E department.

Some patients will be accommodated in refurbished areas of the hospital while in other cases new modular units or portacabins will be provided. The HSE said yesterday that the planned new facilities would have hospital beds and appropriate levels of nursing care.

In a schedule released yesterday, the HSE said 27 low-dependency beds would be put in place immediately at St James's Hospital to alleviate pressure on A&E services.

The HSE said a new transition suite with hospital beds based in a modular unit would be established at Tallaght Hospital within three months.

It said the provision of a drop-in facility aimed at reducing the number of patients accommodated on trolleys was planned for Beaumont Hospital within four months.

The HSE said it also planned, on an immediate basis, to use space in the old A&E department at Cork University Hospital to accommodate patients.

It said it would also convert an existing day room at the Mercy Hospital in Cork within four-five weeks to alleviate pressure on A&E services. A new modular unit is to be put in place beside the existing A&E department at the Mercy Hospital within six months.

The HSE said moves were under way at Cavan General Hospital to relocate the cardiac unit to a modular building and to refurbish this area for use as an admission lounge.

It also said there were plans to create an eight-bed overflow area in a new outpatients department at Naas General Hospital within six-eight weeks.

The HSE said it planned to provide a new purpose-built modular unit beside the A&E unit at Wexford General Hospital within six months.

A HSE spokesman said a new admission area had opened in recent weeks on the fourth floor of Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda to accommodate patients before they are admitted to a ward. The spokesman said this facility could comfortably accommodate eight patients in beds rather than on trolleys.

The HSE said that in the short term its three objectives were that no patient should have to wait longer than 24 hours in any A&E unit for admission, that no unit should have more than 10 patients waiting to be placed in a bed in a ward and that while awaiting admission, patients should be guaranteed privacy and dignity.