Two thirds of hospitals which have admitted having to cancel elective surgery last year have said one of the reasons why they had to do so was because beds were not available.
Some 21 of 34 hospitals which gave details to The Irish Times of the numbers of operations they had to cancel in 2005 indicated a lack of vacant beds was a factor in them having to make their decision to postpone elective surgery.
While lack of bed availability was a major factor at large Dublin hospitals like St James's, it was also a factor at smaller hospitals like Navan where 117 of 302 operations cancelled last year were put off because there were no beds free.
Some 161 of the 202 operations cancelled at St Luke's Hospital, Kilkenny, and 188 of the 191 operations cancelled at St Columcille's Hospital, Loughlinstown, Dublin, last year were also cancelled because of a lack of bed availability.
So too were 123 of the 192 operations cancelled at Sligo General Hospital during the final quarter of 2005.
The 21 hospitals which attributed the cancellation of surgery in part to lack of beds indicated that they, between them, cancelled around 8,500 operations last year for this reason alone. These hospitals included small and large facilities in every part of the State. They also included a children's hospital.
Some 130 of the 854 operations cancelled at Temple Street Children's Hospital last year were put off due to lack of bed availability. Another 327 of the operations were cancelled because a consultant was away, sick or unavailable.
Some hospitals which experienced severe overcrowding in their A&E units in 2005 such as Letterkenny and Wexford General Hospitals, were among those which had to cancel large numbers of operations last year.
The Health Service Executive (HSE) said last night the postponement or cancellation of planned surgery happens "for a variety of unforeseen reasons" such as the prioritising of emergency cases after a serious road crash or a change in the health of another patient.
"While the HSE recognises that deferred operations can cause inconvenience for patients, the HSE does endeavour to keep them to a minimum and to have postponed operations rescheduled as soon as possible," it said.
Finbarr Fitzpatrick, secretary general of the Irish Hospital Consultants Association, said it was "cruel if patients who are all keyed up to go into hospital have their admission cancelled at short notice".
He added that the figures underlined yet again the need for greater capacity in Irish hospitals, both in terms of beds and theatres. "We are faced with the continuing contradiction between the government policy of having 3,000 extra inpatient beds in the system and the CEO [ chief executive] of the HSE saying we have sufficient beds," he said. A new review of hospital bed capacity, ordered by HSE chief executive Prof Brendan Drumm earlier this year, is now underway.