Admissions to accident and emergency units in the Eastern Health Board area are falling, according to the Minister for Health, Mr Cowen. Such admissions have put hospitals under intense pressure. He said yesterday that the health board's Accident and Emergency Committee had reported that the number of patients presenting last week was down by 14 per cent.
Mr Cowen urged people in non-emergency situations to first seek treatment from their GP, rather than go automatically to hospital.
Describing the current situation as "less than ideal", he said he hoped the present problem would be short-term.
"If there is a particular symptom it can bring critical pressure on to hospital services . . . No matter how you plan the system, if there is peak demand there are pressures."
Meanwhile, the chief executive officers from five of Dublin's teaching hospitals yesterday met the secretary-general of the Department of Health to review the situation on hospital waiting lists. The EHB is attempting to procure up to 300 beds in private nursing homes to alleviate the present backlog.
With the issue of hospital waiting lists now becoming a major political issue, Fine Gael's parliamentary party yesterday claimed the situation was inflicting misery on the most vulnerable members of the community, particularly the elderly.
The chairman of the parliamentary party, Mr Phil Hogan, said there was widespread concern at the deteriorating situation in hospitals.