Hospital bed cuts at the Coombe and Crumlin Children’s Hospital slammed

Figures received recently from the Health Service Executive (HSE) showed a cut in the number of available in-patient beds at the Coombe Women’s and Infants University Hospital and Our Lady’s Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin over a ten-year period.

Sinn Féin TD Aengus Ó Snodaigh has expressed alarm at figures when responding to a reply to a parliamentary question he had tabled which showed between 2006 and 2016, the number of inpatient beds at the Coombe and Crumlin Children’s hospitals had been reduced from 207 to 189 and 210 to 182 respectively.

Deputy Ó Snodaigh said: “It is alarming that in a ten-year period the numbers of available inpatient beds in the Coombe and Crumlin Children’s hospitals have reduced at a time when both hospitals are serving a rapidly rising population.

“These figures indicate a failure to address current demand and represent a complete failure to plan for the future.

They represent a chronic under-investment in both the Coombe and Our Lady’s Children’s Hospitals and it is hardly surprising that they are struggling to maintain a proper service for a rapidly expanding youthful population.”