A plan to provide 1,500 new hospital beds has been branded as 'too few and too slow' for what the country needs.
Health Minister Stephen Donnelly is expected to commit to the new beds later, which would be rolled out between 2025 and 2028.
Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) Consultant Committee member Dr Peadar Gilligan told Newstalk Breakfast it is good news.
"Absolutely we welcome this move but I suppose we're a little concerned in terms of the fact that this is essentially a restatement of a commitment or suggestion made in 2018 that the system needed 2,640 beds," he said.
"The Irish Medical Organisation was very clear at that time, and subsequently the ESRI has noted, that that would be an underestimate of the requirements given the population growth.
"So our concern is that while it's very welcome indeed it's going to too few and too slowly".
'1,000 hospital beds a year'
Dr Gilligan said the IMO recently told the Oireachtas Health Committee what is actually needed.
"Really we need to be looking at providing a 1,000 beds a year each year over the next five years," he said.
"That would place us in a far safer position in terms of the crowding of Emergency Departments being addressed and also the waiting lists that are increasing over time.
"Every emergency physician in the country can tell you from their own experience that we don't have the bed capacity in the system.
"The result of that is that patients requiring admission wait in those beds in the Emergency Departments of Ireland".
An intensive care hospital bed, 8-1-21. Image: Sebastian Gollnow/dpaDr Gilligan dismissed suggestions that we may not have the staff to deal with increased bed capacity.
"We train more doctors in Ireland than most other countries in the world," he said.
"Cuba and ourselves are the two highest-trainers of doctors.
"Our difficulty is in retaining them because of the conditions in which they're asked to work".
Dr Gilligan said he's "very confident" that if the capacity increased we would find staff to deliver it.
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