Doctors say a shortage of acute beds in public hospitals is causing chaos in Emergency Departments.

The Irish Medical Organisation says there is nowhere for patients who need to be admitted to go and they are then left in overcrowded and unsafe Emergency Departments.

They say the current policy of canceling elective surgery is only exacerbating the problem - as many of those patients ultimately end up in A&E

Dr. Peadar Gilligan, Consultant in Emergency Medicine at Beaumont Hospital and Chairman of the IMO Consultant Committee he has identified 5 key issues: 

• Acute Bed shortage is root cause of overcrowding problem

• Overcrowding now a year round problem

• Don’t divert public funds to private hospital

• Stop cancelling elective surgery

• Emigration of Irish doctors now a major issue

Dr. Gilligan says Emergency Department overcrowding will not only continue but is guaranteed to worsen as long as the Government refuse to fund additional public beds in hospitals; “The problem is actually quite simple.  Our population is rising and we have cut 1,600 public beds from our hospitals.  That goes back to an ill-fated decision in 2004 to reduce the number of acute public hospital beds.  We’re still paying a price for that.  Put those together and a crisis in our public hospitals is inevitable.  Any attempt to deal with the problem which doesn’t increase the bed count is PR led not evidence based”.