Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The report on the bed capacity review is due in September and will inform the capital plan thereafter. Of course, the Government and the Minister are not going to wait for the report on a bed capacity review to take action.

An additional 102 beds were brought into the system last year and 300 the year previously, and anything that can be done to increase capacity in our hospitals and reduce attendance at our hospitals will be done in the time ahead.

I had a look at the figures, and I have always taken an interest in the area being a medical professional and having served as Minister for Health. While overall the figures certainly show a disimprovement and underline the fact we need to do a lot more, it is interesting to see the variation from hospital to hospital. For example, according to the INMO figures Beaumont Hospital has had its lowest overcrowding since records began, and this is a hospital with an ageing population with no additional beds. Connolly Hospital in Blanchardstown, an area with a massively growing population, has its lowest overcrowding in ten years.

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