‘3,000 hospital beds needed to rebuild health service’

THE health service can never be properly rebuilt until the 3,000 acute hospital beds stripped from the system in the 1980s are replaced, doctors insisted yesterday.

The obstacle to progress was the deficit in capital spending that prevented the beds from being restored, the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) said. It said it was disappointed the chance to replace the beds had been missed in the Budget.

IMO president Christine O’Malley said: “Never have we had so much money and never has there been a clearer need to invest in the public health service.”