It is a "regular occurrence" to delay elective procedures when there is pressure on hospitals through their A&E services, according to Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, who told the Dáil that "as long as people are ill, there will be waiting lists".
His comments follow a report that St James's Hospital in Dublin was forced to cancel some 20 surgical operations in the past week because its four high-dependency beds and 14 intensive care unit beds were all occupied.
On the first official day of the Dáil's spring term, Mr Ahern faced Opposition pressure over bed capacity and waiting lists. He defended the Government's role, insisted capacity had improved by some 1,500 places and rejected figures from Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny that 40,000 operations had been cancelled.
"I do not think any operations were cancelled, although some were postponed." In the first half of 2006, 10,368 operations were postponed, not cancelled and this represented "2 per cent of the total number of 527,000 patients who were treated in acute hospitals in the first six months of last year," Mr Ahern said.
"There will always be pressure and demand for improving the services and issues such as that which arose in St James's Hospital today. This is not new and will not go away. Although we increased the bed capacity for intensive care beds from nine to 14, the hospital will at times run into difficulties. One serious road traffic accident, or operation, or one infection, can at any time create that difficulty."
Mr Kenny said "the fundamental issue, which has not been addressed by the Government parties over the past 10 years, is bed capacity. In 2001, 3,000 additional beds were promised together with an end to waiting lists by 2004." Mr Kenny claimed Dublin hospitals operate at 1-4 per cent spare capacity, although a 15 per cent capacity was best practice. Mr Ahern said "the spare capacity in most acute areas of the health service is very tight. That has always been the case and I would say it will continue to do so. As long as people are ill, people will be on waiting lists, so do not paint the picture that it is always the same people. A person may be in for an operation today and somebody else will be on the list tomorrow".
Labour leader Pat Rabbitte said Mr Ahern was admitting that elective surgery was being cancelled "and suggests that it is normal. He is suggesting it is normal for the elective appointments of cardiac and cancer patients to be cancelled".
He said that a woman who had cardiac problems had received two letters advising of appointments for X-ray on two different dates in December 2007. "She is expected to wait a year." The problem was capacity and expert staff, neither of which was being addressed, he said.
But Mr Ahern said that while it was a regular occurrence to hold back on elective operations when there were A&E pressures, he was not referring to cancer services, where large resources had been successfully spent.
Socialist Party TD Joe Higgins said the Government had "blatantly and cynically failed to meet the commitment the Taoiseach made five years ago to restore 3,000 extra beds to the public health system". He said it was "pathetic" that the HSE was only now carrying out a survey when it was clear that the population was burgeoning.
Mr Ahern said the survey, based on a population of 4.5 million and rising, was under way. Some 1,500 beds had been provided and a further 1,000 would be provided this year through initiatives with private investment.
