More than 70,100 left Irish emergency departments without completing treatment in seven months
Figures reported by RTÉ show the scale of patients who did not wait or left before finishing treatment between January and July 2026, alongside long waits and regional differences.
More than 70,100 people did not wait or left emergency departments in Ireland before completing treatment between January and July 2026, RTÉ reported on 22 October, citing Health Service Executive figures obtained through a parliamentary question. The total brings the scale of unfinished emergency visits into focus as hospitals face long waits and rising attendance.
The figures combine people who did not wait with those who left before treatment was complete. RTÉ did not give a separate total for either group. It said the issue was most prominent at the Mater and St James’s hospitals in Dublin, without publishing counts for those hospitals.
Emergency department waits and regional differences
During the same seven-month period, 31,821 patients waited more than 24 hours in emergency departments before admission or discharge, RTÉ reported. The reported average emergency department wait was 9.3 hours. The report did not specify which stages of a patient’s visit were included in that average.
The share of patients admitted or discharged within six hours also varied across the reported regions: it exceeded 67% in Dublin South East, compared with just over 49% in Dublin north east and the south west. That difference shows that the national figures conceal substantial variation in how quickly patients move through emergency departments.
The data came from a parliamentary question submitted by Pádraig Rice, chair of the Oireachtas Health Committee and a Social Democrats TD. Rice described emergency departments as being in a permanent state of crisis and attributed the pressure to shortages of staff and beds, according to RTÉ. His assessment goes beyond what the attendance and waiting-time figures alone establish.
HSE reports higher emergency attendance
In its response cited by RTÉ, the HSE said emergency department attendances up to the previous week had risen by more than 90,000, or 7.3%, against the same period a year earlier. Attendances by people aged 75 and over rose by almost 17,000, or 8.9%, it said. The HSE also said it was committed to improving patient flow.
The HSE publishes a separate daily urgent and emergency care report based on an 8 a.m. hospital snapshot. It includes patients on trolleys in emergency departments and wards, delayed discharges and surge capacity. Those daily measures provide a view of hospital pressure alongside the newly reported seven-month figures on patients who left or did not wait.
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Sources and context
- 70,000 left EDs before full treatment in seven monthsRTÉ News
- Urgent and emergency care report (daily)Health Service Executive (HSE)
AI-assisted article checked against the listed sources. NewsJaws did not conduct interviews or attend the reported events.