Colm Burke says a man who could have been discharged after two months, instead spent a full year at the hospital because no stepdown care facility could be identified for him.
He told the committee that there are 240 less community beds in the Cork/Kerry region and says he knows of two other patients at Cork University Hospital who cannot be discharged for the same reason.
The CEO of the HSE said while he is not aware of the individual circumstances, no patients' discharge would be delayed by ten months because of a simple lack of a community bed.
Bernard Gloster said the HSE will look into the issue:
