A shortage of acute hospital beds is causing chaos in the country's Emergency Departments (EDs) and this is a year-round problem, the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) has warned.

According to the organisation, which represents doctors in Ireland, a shortage of acute beds in public hospitals ‘is the root cause of the overcrowding problem in EDs'.

"Put simply, there is nowhere for patients who need to be admitted to go and they are left in an overcrowded, unsafe ED environment," commented Dr Peadar Gilligan, a consultant in emergency medicine and chairman of the IMO Consultant Committee.

He insisted that it is wrong to place so much focus on ‘winter initiatives' when it comes to ED overcrowding, because this is a problem that occurs year round.

"The ED 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 EDs actually get worse during the summer as the local population swells with holiday makers," Dr Gilligan said.

He pointed out that despite a rising population, 1,600 public beds have been cut from public 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. Any attempt to deal with the problem which doesn't increase the bed count is PR led not evidence based," he commented.

Meanwhile, Dr Gilligan described the policy of cancelling elective surgeries as ‘insane', as this simply increases the number of patients who end up moving to a crisis situation, increasing their chance of having to use the ED.

"Very often what might have been elective a year ago becomes critical now. We warned last year that cancelling elective procedures would have consequences and those consequences will include increased demand in the coming months from patients who were not treated last year," he explained.

He also warned that the emigration of doctors has become a serious issue, with an increasing number of doctors in training emigrating each year. Currently Ireland requires an additional 1,657 consultants across all specialties, but is unable to recruit these professionals.

Dr Gilligan also criticised the use of public funds to pay for treatments in private hospitals, under the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF). He insisted that the use of the NTPF diverts scarce resources to private hospitals, which rewards the private sector rather than the public sector and is therefore counter productive.