ICU staffing
Deputy Nolan said extra ICU beds were useless without staff in Tullamore and Portlaoise. The Taoiseach replied that ICU care was highly staff-intensive and that additional staff had been trained during the pandemic.
There is a shortage of ICU beds in both Tullamore and Portlaoise hospitals but there is an additional issue. I have spoken to many nurses already about the situation in Tullamore. Staff are also needed. There is no point in having beds without staff to man them. I urge the Taoiseach to address the staffing issue in addition to the ICU beds issue.
Comment on this
The entire issue with an ICU bed is staff. The ratio of nurses to patients in ICU is 1:1. It is very staff-intensive, as it has to be. Therefore, up to 1,500 staff were trained during the pandemic to be ready for a Covid surge and to significantly increase ICU capacity to deal with any further surges. The facility exists within the health service to ramp up critical care capacity, if necessary. There has been an increase in beds since the beginning of the year but we will continue to work on that. I accept the bona fides of the Deputies in asking their questions. A genuine objective of ours is to ensure we have sufficient critical care capacity to deal with the issues.