Minister for Health, Leo Varadkar has insisted that he was not talking about doctors and nurses when he called for greater efficiency in the hospital system.

Mr Varadkar was defending comments he made in a Sunday Independent interview where he said that providing more hospital beds can sometimes slow down how quickly hospitals deal with patients.

He said there isn’t the same pressure to process patients as when emergency departments are overcrowded.

Speaking in Cork, Mr Varadkar said he was referring to hospital management, and not care staff when he made the comment.

“If I made a criticism of anyone, it’s not the front line staff, one of whom I used to be, who have very little control over these things. But it was a comment may be more directed towards clinical leaders and management in hospitals who actually do have influence in this,” said Mr Varadkar.

“What can happen in some hospitals is sometimes when they have more beds and more resources, that’s what kind of slows it down .... When a hospital is very crowded, there will be a real push to make sure people get their x-rays, get their tests and you know, let’s get them out in four days.

“When a hospital isn’t under as much pressure, you start to see things slowing down and it might take five, six or seven days to get person discharged and that’s (the) length of stay. So it’s all these different factors come into play all the time,” he said.

Fianna Fáil spokesman on health, Billy Kelleher described the minister's comments as being "as astonishing as they are offensive".

He called on Mr Varadkar to apologise to “the hard working staff in our health services”.

“It is clear that the minister thinks that overcrowding provides the optimum working environment for a hospital. The fact that it has been estimated that some 350 people a year may die from emergency department overcrowding clearly has not featured in the minister’s thoughts.

“Furthermore what sort of impact will this have on staff morale if the Minister for Health thinks they are a shower of shirkers who will only get the finger out if they are working in a pressure cooker environment?,” said Mr Kelleher.

Mr Varadkar defended his comments and accused Mr Kelleher of misrepresenting him. He said Mr Kelleher was trying to make political capital from comments that he never made in relation to hospital doctors and nurses.

“Of course I didn’t use the terms doctors, nurses, staff or lazy at all but it is an election campaign so it’s inevitable that dishonest people like Billy Kelleher will try to misrepresent what I said,” said Mr Varadkar.

Mr Varadkar said that he had begun reversing a process started by Fianna Fáil leader, Michael Martin when he was Minister for Health.

Mr Vadarkar said that the Fianna Fáil leader had taken 1,250 beds out of the hospital system during his time in government. According to Mr Vadarkar, the coalition has re-introduced some 300 beds into the hospital system to date.

“So it isn’t just about staff and resources and beds, it’s also about efficiency and that was the point that was made. I didn’t mention front line staff. I made no criticism of them whatsoever so it’s an entirely a political charge to suggest that I did.

“If the government is to introduce more than the 300 beds and 4,000 staff which it has added to the health service, then it was entitled to expect more efficiency for both patients and taxpayers which was something that Fianna Fail could never understand,” he said.