A new dispute has broken out between the Government and Fine Gael over the number of bed closures in hospitals.
It centres on different interpretations of bed-closure figures provided by the Minister for Health, Mr Cowen, to the Fine Gael spokesman, Mr Shatter, before publication of the Estimates.
Meanwhile, Democratic Left has called on the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, to intervene directly to have the closures reversed. In a Dail reply last week, Mr Cowen said the average monthly number of planned temporary hospital bed closures would be 456 in the final quarter of the year.
This represented approximately 3.7 per cent of the total number of 12,267 acute hospital beds available nationally. The 456 beds were located in 25 hospitals out of a total of 55 nationally.
Mr Shatter maintained that this presentation of the "average monthly" figure disguised the fact that 1,270 bed closures were planned for the final three months of the year.
The tabular reply circulated by the Minister showed 270 bed closures in October, 214 in November and a planned 786 in December, he added.
Spokesmen for the Department and Fine Gael were sticking to their interpretations of the statistics last night. Calling for the Taoiseach's intervention to reverse the closures, the DL spokeswoman, Ms Liz McManus, said the current policy of bed closures in acute hospitals made neither economic nor medical sense.
Mr Cowen has come under renewed pressure to intervene in the Galway hospital dispute, after an offer by a leading consultant to work for half his salary until Christmas to help keep threatened wards and a theatre open.
Three sides involved in the dispute have also agreed to talks at the Labour Relations Commission next Wednesday.
The invitation has been accepted by the Western Health Board, the Irish Nurses' Organisation and SIPTU, but SIPTU's regional representative, Mr Michael Kilcoyne, said he was not hopeful of a favourable outcome as the LRC could only deal with the industrial relations issue, the threatened lay-off of 45 nurses at the Galway hospital.
The Galway Council of Trade Unions has called on the Minister for Health and the Minister of State, Mr Frank Fahey, to resign over their failure to "distinguish the difference between a budgetary problem and an outright emergency". And the Western Health Board has moved to reassure patients that normal services at all acute hospitals will continue by opening a telephone helpline for the public.
The offer by Mr Jack McCann, consultant plastic surgeon at University College Hospital Galway, prompted a wave of public support on Galway Bay FM radio yesterday. Mr McCann, who is chairman of the Community Health Response Group attached to the hospital, said that the main issue - patient care - was now being overlooked. The group intended to open its bank account for donations, and would try to raise the necessary funding within the next week, Mr McCann said.
The Western Health Board's help-line is 1800-789-123, office hours only. The Community Health Response Group account for donations is at Allied Irish Banks, Lynch's Castle, No 12640007.