Some urgent operations had to be cancelled at the largest hospital in the State yesterday due to a shortage of intensive care beds. The types of operations which had to be postponed included major cancer surgery.
St James's Hospital in Dublin was forced to cancel the operations because all its intensive care beds were full, resulting in the recovery beds in operating theatres also having to be used for patients in need of one to one care.
The hospital also had to go off call for a period as a result and ambulances were diverted to other hospitals.
Among the patients who had surgery cancelled were a cancer patient who was meant to have his bladder removed on Monday. The operation has had to be put off then and was postponed again yesterday.
Meanwhile, a woman awaiting major surgery, also for cancer, has had her operation cancelled three times in the past two weeks.
A spokesman for the hospital said St James's had explained the situation to patients who had surgery cancelled and apologised to them. It promised to try and reschedule their surgery as soon as possible.
"At this stage we have had to cancel some elective surgery. We are prioritising urgent elective surgery but even some urgent elective surgery has had to be deferred," the spokesman said.
One doctor in the hospital told The Irish Times the problem was an ongoing one and was not unique to St James's.
"It's all around the Dublin teaching hospitals," he said. "There are not enough intensive care beds."