Government told new emergency consultant posts must be accompanied by more beds

'The most significant problem currently affecting clinical care in emergency departments is the inability of a patient who requires hospital admission to be provided with a hospital bed in a timely fashion, resulting in unacceptable levels of ED crowding.' Picture: Larry Cummins

A proposal to fund 50 new emergency medicine consultants is welcome but will not address overcrowding on its own unless extra beds are urgently funded in parallel.

That is according to the Irish Association of Emergency Medicine (IAEM) which represents consultants working in emergency medicine here.