THE country’s largest health agency, the Eastern Regional Health Authority (ERHA) is predicting a shortage of 1,000 acute beds in the region by 2011.

Opposition parties have accused the Government of deliberating leaking a report revealing there are almost 6,500 unauthorised workers in the health service in its attempt to justify future job-shedding.

BEDS in nursing homes around the country remain empty while hospital consultants struggle to admit patients whose beds are taken up by elderly people well enough to be discharged.