Madam, - The Exchequer returns for 2005 have far exceeded all expectations, providing a great opportunity to reverse the cuts made in the late 1980s and early 1990s. These included the closure of more than 3,000 hospital beds, which caused many difficulties in our health system. In 1980 we had 5.13 beds per 1,000 population; the figure now is 2.97.
We see the effect of these cuts in the form of hundreds of patients waiting for admissions to hospital beds on trolleys in A&E departments across the State. We also see the cancellations of thousands of elective admissions and operations each year, as highlighted in your newspaper recently. We invest only 9.7 per cent of our national budget for capital spending on health-related projects.
The time has come to use the extra money now available immediately to create extra bed capacity in our urgent care hospitals. This would alleviate the suffering of those sick patients lying on hospital trolleys and at quieter times would help to reduce the waiting-lists. - Yours, etc,
Dr ASAM ISHTIAQ, President, Irish Medical Organisation, Fitzwilliam Place, Dublin 2.