There are more than twice as many hospital beds lying idle than people being treated on trolleys, the Irish Nurses' Organisation (INO) claimed today.
However, the Health Service Executive (HSE) has rejected the claim and said it was completely "misleading".
The INO said this morning its trolley count throughout the summer had revealed there are more than 200 patients per day admitted to hospitals who had no bed available to them.
In this situation, patients are accommodated in "virtual wards" on trolleys in either A&E Departments or on corridors leading to them.
The INO said a survey it carried out showed there were more than 480 beds closed in the State's hospital system. A total of 201 of these beds are in the greater Dublin area, according to the INO study.
INO Director of Industrial Relations Phil Ní Sheaghdha said the 480 empty beds "could be opened with a very small investment in refurbishment and staffing by comparison to the 1,000 beds announced by the Minister last week, which will not come on stream in any public hospital for at least five years.
"The fact that the numbers on trolleys have remained consistently high throughout the summer, when they should have dropped, is enough advance warning to show we are facing a worse winter than ever unless these beds are immediately opened," he said.
However, in a statement issued today, the Health Service Executive (HSE) has rejected the INO's claim. "Claims made by the INO this morning regarding hospital beds closed across the country are completely misleading," the HSE said.
"Having reviewed the list provided for example in the eastern region these are not acute hospital beds. . . . The relationship between the type of facilities mentioned by the INO and the numbers of people waiting for admission from acute hospital A&E departments is incorrect at best."
As of yesterday, INO figures claimed 224 patients were being treated on hospital trolleys.
Under an initiative announced last Thursday by Minister for Health Mary Harney, an extra 1,000 acute hospital beds will be provided for public patients in major hospitals across the State over the next five years.
The beds are currently set aside for private patients in public hospitals, but these are to be clawed back by transferring private patients who use them to new private hospitals that will be built by investors on the sites of public hospitals.
Ms Harney said the sites would be leased or sold at commercial rates to private developers. This was the fastest and most economical way of meeting the need for extra hospital beds, she said.
