David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

There is a quantifiable difference in the types of patient, the needs, the age demographics and so on that places an additional burden on the hospital's capacity.

When submitting parliamentary questions to a hospital or hospital group, it is unusual for it to reply saying that it needs more capacity. I do not believe that any other hospital group does it. I imagine that the University Limerick Hospitals Group does it because of the difficulties and challenges it faces, not just within University Hospital Limerick, although we cannot divorce what is happening there from the wider mid-west that it services. What is the overall group's request for bed capacity? What is the established deficit of acute inpatient beds across the group?