Ireland – Health and social work services – Provision of a Managed Service to open bed capacity at Blarney HSE Southwest Facility

The objective of this Voluntary Ex Ante Transparency VEAT notice is to inform the market of HSE Southwest's intention to enter into a contract with Mowlam Healthcare in accordance with Article 32.2b i.e. the works, supplies or services can be provided only by a particular economic operator for reason ii competition is absent for technical reasons. The HSE bought the Blarney Golf Hotel during the emergency phase of the Covid-19 pandemic and converted the hotel into a 50-bed Community Nursing Unit facility in order to increase long term care capacity across Cork and Kerry. Due to the significant demand for rehabilitation beds in the region and taking into consideration the infrastructural characteristics of the building, it was agreed that the optimal use for this facility would be for rehabilitation beds. To date this facility remains vacant however is ready for immediate occupation. In recent years, the HSE South West region has experienced an ever-increasing level of rehabilitation demand. There is a significant shortfall of rehabilitation bed provision across HSE South West. The shortage of rehabilitation bed capacity in Cork and Kerry has led to significant challenges for our acute hospitals. In 2023, 205,000 people aged 75yrs and older presented to EDs in 2023, half of these will be admitted and will stay an average of 15 days HIPE 2023, using almost 60 percent of Acute Bed Capacity whilst constituting 15 percent of ED presentations. The impact from this has meant that demands for Urgent and Emergency Care has increased in our acute hospitals, by 15 percent in Cork University Hospital and by 10 percent in University Hospital Kerry respectively. CUH has the 3rd highest trolley count in the country year to date and these demand growths are far in excess of predictions and represent the highest growth in acute demand across the state. The patients requiring rehabilitation beds upon medical discharge has led to repeated surges in the numbers of Delayed Transfers of Care DTOCs. Transitional Care Beds are generally unsuitable placements for patients awaiting rehabilitation, these DTOCs are forced to reside in acute hospital beds at great cost in both financial and bed resource terms. Although their length of stay post-medical discharge is usually shorter than other DTOC cohorts on average 1-2 weeks, the volume of DTOCs awaiting rehabilitation placement leads to a significant volume of acute bed days being lost overall. This issue is particularly pronounced in Cork University Hospital and University Hospital Kerry. If there were greater rehabilitation capacity available in the region, these patients could be discharged in a more timely manner and thus free up acute hospital beds for the ever-increasing demand being experienced at the front doors of our acute hospitals. The objective of this procurement process is to provide 50 rehabilitation beds for the HSE Southwest Region. This will free up Acute Beds during the Winter 2024 period. This is an interim arrangement for Winter 2024 pending a full procurement process. The HSE Southwest will complete an open tender process for this requirement.