Exclusive: £10.5m spent on staffed but unused hospital beds in NI

Around £10.5m was spent on hundreds of staffed hospital beds that lay empty during a lull in the Covid-19 pandemic last year, UTV can reveal.

During a 10 to 12-week period last summer, an average of between 600 and 700 empty beds were available across Northern Ireland every day. One day in June, 1,000 beds were free.

The revelations come as the health service struggles to tackle the waiting list crisis.

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Former chief of the Health and Social Care Board John Compton said this shows the need for reform.

“You have to get beds in the right place to be able to do the right thing,” he said.

“So, for example, protected elective centres might have been able to use some of those beds had we had them.

“We didn’t have them.

“But it does show that perhaps if we reorganised our hospitals, we could have them and that would of course help us address the appalling waiting lists that we have at this point in time.”

Mr Compton added: “It’s important we use resources as efficiently as possible.”

Hugh Montgomery has had a hernia for 20 years and has been on a waiting list for a life-changing procedure for two years.

“I would be in pain all the time if it wasn’t for the medication. I just seem to be on a circle the whole time,” he said.

“The medication is just going up all the time, but the pain’s not going away.”

Health Minister Robin Swann has warned that the health system in Northern Ireland is in “big trouble”.

He said that many hospitals are operating above 100% capacity at the moment and added that fixing the system will require collective action from the Executive.

• Video: Deborah McAleese reports from outside the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast