Elective surgeries in Irish hospitals drop by more than 100,000

As part of measures to deal with overcrowding non-urgent operations are postponed to allow hospitals provide beds for patients coming in through emergency departments.

There has been been a drop of over 100,000 in the number of elective surgeries being carried out in Irish hospitals.

New figures released under parliamentary questions show there were 187,000 elective discharges in 2012. However, that was down to just over 86,000 last year.