Temple Street Children's Hospital in Dublin postponed all scheduled elective surgery Friday.

In a statement, the hospital said they had been forced to postpone the surgeries "as a result of the increased number of winter-related admissions".

The hospital says 1,471 elective surgical admissions have been made so far this year.

Eight patients who were due to come in today were postponed due to "the increased number of winter-related admissions - especially babies under one year old with respiratory illness who have been admitted through the emergency department over the past week and who need careful monitoring".

Michael O'Keefe, is a consultant ophthalmologist surgeon at the Mater and Temple Street Hospitals.

"The place has too few beds for the number of people that are treated there" he told Newstalk Breakfast.

"Today you're probably talking about...20 elective surgeries cancelled".

He said that just eight cases of elective surgery today would be "very few in any hospital...I'd have to question that number".

"They keep covering it up - they keep making excuses and excuses".

He also said the new proposed national children's hospital will be "another nightmare".