Doctors working in Emergency Departments (EDs) nationwide have voiced their concern about the capacity problems facing the Irish health service.

Earlier this week, the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) insisted that a shortage of acute beds in public hospitals ‘is the root cause of the overcrowding problem in EDs'. It also insisted that this is a year-round problem, not just a winter problem.

Commenting on this issue, the Irish Association for Emergency Medicine (IAEM), which represents doctors working in EDs, said that it has ‘repeatedly brought this issue to public attention'.

"At this stage, we are forced to ask how many more expert bodies will have to speak on this issue and make the same point before there is a concerted attempt to address the underlying capacity problem?" the association commented.

It noted that this week, it was also revealed that the National Neurosurgical Unit at Dublin's Beaumont Hospital is currently unable to meet the demand for urgent surgery for patients with malignant brain tumours.

There are also problems admitting patients in a timely fashion who have major brain injuries which require emergency neurosurgical interventions.

The IAEM said that the shortage of acute hospital beds, community beds and critical care beds ‘are well documented' and this issue has by now ‘been talked to death'.

Like the IMO, it questioned why the Government is again launching a ‘winter initiative' to deal with overcrowding problems in EDs, when this is an ongoing problem.

The initiative was to be launched on Tuesday, but has now been postponed until Friday.

"It is rather surprising to hear talk about winter planning as if the problems in the health service are exclusively a winter phenomenon or can just be addressed in an ad hoc way.

"While certain contributors to the problem certainly worsen over the winter, the very dangerous phenomena of patients languishing on trolleys and repeated cancellations of elective surgery are a year-round problem. It is important therefore that the identified problems are addressed continually rather than occasionally," the IAEM insisted.

It acknowledged that investing in capacity is expensive, however it pointed out that this is necessary if patients are to be provided with an adequate health service.

"This issue has been talked to death at this stage. The Minister for Health and the HSE need to finally set about solving it. Episodic allocations of funding will not solve the underlying problem, only increased bed capacity will," it added.