€1m bill for private beds as UHG’s lay unused

A patient advocacy group claimed it made ‘no financial sense’ to use private hospital beds – costing as much as €1,200 per patient per night – when surge capacity at the public University Hospital Galway was not fully used.

But the HSE insisted this week that it did not use 16 trolleys in its Surgical Day Ward – part of its overall surge capacity – because it would have had to cancel more procedures as a result.

Angela Coll, chairperson of Friends of Ennis Hospital campaign group, has analysed data provided by the HSE, and Department of Health, and concluded GUH was ‘wasting money’ on private beds in Bons Secours and Galway Clinic.

Ms Coll also concluded from performance figures that University Hospital Limerick – which has suffered reputational damage due to high profile failings and large daily trolley counts – was better managed than GUH.

Ms Coll analysed UHG’s data after it appeared its Emergency Department trolley count was at a manageable level compared with Limerick.

“I thought we could copy what Galway were doing in Limerick, but then I realised what they’re doing is spending money to treat people in private beds,” she said.

It was confirmed at the HSE West Regional Health Forum in February that GUH had a total surge capacity of 37 beds, including 21 surge beds plus 16 Surgical Day beds. Surge capacity is beds elsewhere in the hospital used to meet high demand in ED.

Ms Coll’s analysis found that UHG used its own surge capacity of 21 beds on 15 out of 31 days in December but it never used the other additional surge capacity of 16 surgical beds.

On 16 out of 31 December days, UHG did not use its total surge capacity of 21 beds – or any of its 16 surgical surge beds – but the HSE and Saolta confirmed to the latest Forum meeting that GUH used private bed capacity in Galway every day in December.

In total they bought 842 bed nights in December for public patients, an average of 27 per day, which Ms Coll’s conservative estimate said cost €1,200 per bed, per night or about €1m in total for the month.

But if the ED trolley count was down compared with Limerick, was this money well spent?

“No. They should have used their own surge first before they started paying out money to use private bed capacity,” insisted Ms Coll.

“There were 16 days in December when they didn’t use all of their surge capacity beds – never mind their additional surge 16 surgical day beds – and they were still paying out for private beds,” she added.