A new report has found that the pressure on intensive care units is significant and there are not enough of these beds to meet demand.
The Irish National ICU Audit, which covers 2022, said that expanding capacity to ensure timely admissions and discharges is critical to improve patient outcomes.
It found that the average number of intensive care or high dependency beds in public hospitals was 289, corresponding to 5.6 critical care beds for every 100,000 people.
It said this is low compared to international standards, with the UK having 7.3 beds and the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) average of around 12 beds for every 100,000 people.
The report found that high bed occupancy often led to periods when ICU beds were fully occupied, impeding urgent admissions.
In a statement, the Health Service Executive said that extra investment resulted in the number of critical care beds being increased to 329 at the end of last year.
The number will rise to 352 by the end of this year, it added.
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The HSE also said there are plans for new-build capacity at five prioritised sites to support an extra 106 beds.
The 2022 audit, published today, said that 85% of admissions to ICU occurred within four hours of the decision to admit, only 30% were admitted within one hour.
The target was 50%.
Clinical Lead of the Irish National ICU Audit Professor Rory Dwyer said the findings highlighted both achievements and areas requiring attention in intensive care units.
He said that while the quality of care remains high, the pressure on resources is significant.
The report found that despite significant efforts and investments, the current ICU bed availability is insufficient to meet the demands.
In 2022, there were 10,423 patients treated in 26 intensive care units, across 22 hospitals.
The report is from the National Office of Clinical Audit.
An Intensive Care specialist at St Vincent's University Hospital in Dublin said Ireland is "miles away" from what is needed, both in terms of beds and staff.
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Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, Dr Andrew Westbrook said all ICU beds have to be staffed and for every bed that is opened six nurses need to be hired.
He said it is difficult to retain nurses in Ireland and that "a lot of them are leaving because of conditions...they can't find somewhere to live. It's too expensive to live, particularly in Dublin".
Dr Westbrook also said there is an additional problem of moving people who are medically fit for discharge out of ICU's, due to a lack of beds on general wards, which "reflects the lack of infrastructure across the acute healthcare delivery system, not just in intensive care but also ward beds."
He said that this was the first report that included all of the intensive care units in Ireland in the public sector.
"We need to build more infrastructure. We need to build it quickly, but more importantly, as well as doing that, we need to hire, train and hire more intensive care staff and retain them and the Government and the Department of Health and the various voluntary hospitals and HSE hospitals are going to have to find ways to incentivise staff to stay and work in healthcare in this country," Dr Westbrook said.
