Hospital restricts A&E visits as doctor accuses Leo Varadkar of delaying action on overcrowding

Beaumont Hospital has asked members of the public and GPs to avoid visiting their emergency department where possible.

They say they are experiencing an unusually high number of patients presenting to the department, with yesterday seeing the highest number of attendances in the last 18 months.

Management say that they are seeing a high volume of older people coming to the hospital.

They have also cancelled non-urgent admissions and surgeries to free-up extra beds.

Health Minister Leo Varadkar claimed yesterday that the situation in Emergency Departments was not as bad as last year, but Consultant Dr Jim Gray believes he is putting off dealing with the situation until after the election.

Dr Gray said: "I don't believe Leo Varadkar genuinely believes that he can sort this out between now and the election, I think he is kicking the can down the road by saying that it is going to take a few years to sort out.

"I think he went around yesterday, he saw six hospitals, many of those hospitals were grossly overcrowded and he would have seen for himself first hand that this is a mjor problem that he is not going to deal with."