Non-urgent elective surgeries posponed at Beaumont Hospital today
All non-urgent elective surgeries have been postponed at Beaumont Hospital in Dublin today because of overcrowding.
It comes after Cork University Hospital and the Mater Hospital in Dublin took the same decision yesterday.
Flu season has led to increasing pressure on hospitals around the country - with St James in Dublin, University Hospital Limerick, University Hospital Galway and Sligo Regional Hospital also experiencing high volumes of patients in their Emergency Departments.
The Minister for Health Leo Varadkar has said the cancellation of elective surgeries is part of measures agreed with nurses to ease pressure in EDs.
However, President of the Irish Medical Organisation, Dr Ray Walley, says these measures have a knock-on effect on GPs: “10 years since we declared a national emergency and it has become the norm, week in, week out,
“And the knock on effect is GP’s are having to re-refer patients who were referred for surgery or referred to out-patients a year or two years ago because these patients haven’t been seen and that is of extreme concern and issues are going to become emergency.”
