Government failing to tackle bed shortage, say consultants

DAILY tallies of people waiting on hospital trollies are a damning indictment of the Government’s failure to implement its own strategy to tackle the A&E crisis, hospital consultants claimed yesterday.

They said Taoiseach Bertie Ahern had displayed an amazing lack of understanding of the crisis besetting the country’s acute hospitals.

“The main issue has been and continues to be a shortage of hospital beds,” the Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA) said.