The single most important limiting factor for admission to hospital is bed availability. In this context a comprehensive review of bed capacity needs has been conducted in conjunction with the Department of Finance and in consultation with the social partners. This review, Acute Hospital Bed Capacity – A National Review, focused primarily on the need to increase bed capacity and to have a strategic framework in place in terms of the number of additional beds required in the short, medium and long term. On foot of this report the Government decided, in the context of the strategy, to provide an additional 3,000 beds in acute hospitals over the next ten years. This represents the largest ever concentrated expansion of acute hospital capacity in Ireland.