Doctors working in Emergency Departments (ED) around the country have criticised the Government's failure to tackle the issue of overcrowding in hospitals.

According to the Irish Association for Emergency Medicine (IAEM), Budget 2017, which was announced on October 11, failed to address the serious shortage of acute hospital beds within the health service.

This, the IAEM said, suggests that the Government ‘is happy to lose yet more of its citizens to premature death and disability'.

"There is clear evidence of the harm caused by ED crowding which results in an estimated 350 excess, avoidable deaths per year in Ireland, as well as many more patients who have poorer medical outcomes. There is simply no excuse for this lack of action and the crass indifference to the plight of these patients," the association said.

It noted that on Budget day, 438 patients were waiting on trolleys in acute hospitals nationwide, 352 of these in the country's 29 EDs.

Six of these hospitals had more than 20 patients on trolleys in their EDs, while three of them had over 30 patients on trolleys.

"In 2016, in a developed country that spends €14.6 billion on its health service, this is simply unacceptable. Many of these patients are elderly. Some in their 80s and 90s have been obliged to wait far in excess of 24 hours which is even more unacceptable," the IAEM commented.

It added that the solution to this problem is obvious - more bed capacity - and it insisted that the extra investment announced for the health service in Budget 2017 ‘must take account of this'.