13,000 operations were cancelled by hospitals this year, according to the HSE. The cancellations took place in the first eight months of the year alone. Staff and bed shortages were blamed for the cancellations.
Tallaght Hospital cancelled more operations than any other, with 889 procedures not going ahead. Throughout the country, 4,972 inpatient procedures were cancelled, while 8,070 day-case surgeries did not take place.
The HSE claimed that procedures could not go ahead for a variety of reasons, including appropriate staff not being available, lack of beds and patients themselves not attending.
Cork University Hospital cancelled an average of 58 operations a week, while Beaumont Hospital cancelled 564 inpatient procedures between January and September.