The Health Minister says there are more beds in Emergency Departments than there were last year, but says increasing them isn'Â’t the only solution to overcrowding.

Minister Harris was responding to comments by the Irish Medical Organisation who say overcrowding is now a year-round problem.

299 patients were waiting on trolleys and in wards this morning.

Juliette Gash reports;

 This morning, the Irish Medical Organisation issued a statement criticising the focus on a winter initiative.

Dr. Peadar Gilligan, Consultant in Emergency Medicine at Beaumont Hospital and Chairman of the IMO Consultant Committee made five key points:

• Acute Bed shortage is root cause of overcrowding problem:

The shortage of acute beds in public hospitals is the root cause of the overcrowding problem in Emergency Departments.  Put simply there is nowhere for patients, who need to be admitted, to go and they are then left in an overcrowded, unsafe Emergency Department environment.

• Overcrowding now a year round problem:

Overcrowding in Emergency Departments is a year round problem and it is inherently wrong to just focus on “Winter Initiatives”.

• Don’t divert public funds to private hospitals:

We must use taxpayers funds to improve our public health services, attempts to divert public funds to private hospitals is a failed policy that does little for our services in the medium to long term.

• Stop cancelling elective surgery:

Continuing with the insane policy of cancelling elective surgery is increasing the number of patients who then move to a crisis situation and end up in our Emergency Departments.

• Emigration of Irish doctors now a major issue:

Ireland must do better and ensure we have a highly trained medical workforce that is sufficient to meet the needs of patients.  Currently we have a situation of being unable to recruit consultants and our doctors in training are emigrating in greater numbers each year.

 Dr Gilligan said that efforts to alleviate the problem which do not focus on the shortage of acute beds were little more than political PR initiatives which would have little impact on the plight of patients.  

He said; “the Emergency Department crisis is a year-round crisis.  The notion of peaks in Winter that require special attention is mistaken.  Throughout the Summer, for example, Beaumont Hospital has had about 20 patients waiting for beds each day.  In other areas, the problems in Emergency Departments actually get worse during the Summer as the local population swells with holiday-makers."