142 Mr. Allen asked the Minister for Health if he will make a statement on the views of a person (details supplied) who raised a question at the IHCA Conference in County Kilkenny as to whether closing down beds is the correct policy to save finance in view of the fact that a UK hospital with a budget of £49 million which closed 16 per cent of its beds, resulted in cost savings of only 0.5 per cent.

I am satisfied that the closure of surplus acute hospital beds, where properly planned and managed, can generate savings and lead to greater cost efficiency.