Dublin, Kildare and Wicklow will need an extra 1,276 acute hospital beds in the next 10 years, according to the Eastern Regional Health Authority.
More non-acute beds for older people are also needed to increase the capacity of general hospitals to deal with acute cases, the ERHA says. The supply of both acute and public non-acute beds in the ERHA region is below the national average, it says.
The region relies more on the private sector for nursing home and convalescent care than any other part of the State. A number of factors have increased the demand for beds in the region. They include an increase in emergency admissions; more respiratory conditions due to winter, a steady decline in elective (non-urgent) admissions, high waiting lists, and elderly patients occupying beds for "inappropriate" periods.
The demand would be even greater, it says, were it not for the large proportion of the population aged 15 to 44, a group which uses far fewer hospital services than the over-45s.