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

We do recognise that and I know the chief medical officer recognises it also. One of the real concerns we have during the pandemic is what people call secondary deaths, for example, people who have a heart attack not going to the hospital because they think it is overwhelmed and they do not want to bother the doctors and nurses, and perhaps people who have stroke symptoms delaying seeking medical help because of the pandemic. This is a real worry we have, which is why we are sending out the message that everyone who needs medical attention should seek it. We have 800 more beds, including 400 acute and 400 subacute, than we had in March, and many fewer than this number of patients in hospital with Covid. If we look at the level of overcrowding and the number of trolleys, people on trolleys in our hospitals has not been lower since records began. We have capacity and we are saying to people that if they need medical help they should seek it. On occasion, hospitals do have to cancel operations and there may be various reasons in different cases why this is. It could be because of a lack of beds but it could also be for other reasons.

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