Tallaght Hospital saw nearly 2,000 patients wait over 24 hours in ED

Almost 2,000 patients waited over 24 hours in emergency departments at Tallaght University Hospital in the first six months of 2026.

1,869 patients spent more than 24 hours in Tallaght Hospital’s emergency department, according to new figures revealed by the HSE following a parliamentary question, with 391 of these patients aged 75 years or over.

4,210 patients left the hospital’s emergency department without being seen due to the wait times and 185 of these patients were over 75.

Dublin Mid-West TD Mark Ward described the figures as “deeply alarming” and “extraordinary.”

Deputy Ward said: “These figures are deeply alarming and should concern everyone…these figures represent sick people, many of them older and vulnerable patients, who were left waiting for more than a full day for the care and hospital bed they needed.

“At the same time, almost 4,210 patients left Tallaght Hospital emergency departments without being seen.

“That is an extraordinary number of people walking away without receiving the assessment or treatment they came for.”

Patients seen in six hours or under at the hospital never made up more than 41.4 per cent of monthly figures, in this case April, and fell as much as 34.2 per cent as recently as June.

The hospital had the second-highest number of patients seen across the Dublin and Midlands region, dwarfed by Children’s Health Ireland on each occasion only, which tended to record five-figure presentations.

On top of this, Tallaght recorded the highest average waiting time at an emergency department at the start of the year at 19 hours, with stats for June showing that this only fell marginally to 16 hours, despite a dip to 14 in May.

The hospital’s emergency department’s average times put them alongside St Vincent’s University Hospital, Beaumont Hospital, Mater Misericordiae University Hospital and Cork University Hospital as the top five slowest in the country, per the HSE.

Deputy Ward called on the Government to “fully fund and accelerate” the Acute Inpatient Hospital Bed Expansion Plan, announced in May 2024, and commended emergency department staff for doing “everything they can.”

The plan seeks to deliver 4,367 acute hospital in-patient beds by 2031 across the country to help deal with overcrowding issues and better accommodate an ageing population.

“Staff working in our emergency departments are doing everything they can under enormous pressure. They cannot compensate for years of government failure to deliver enough hospital beds, step-down beds, community services and properly staffed alternatives to emergency departments.

“This failure has consequences. It means patients remaining on trolleys, older people waiting more than 24 hours for admission, cancelled procedures and overcrowded emergency departments.

“Emergency department overcrowding is not simply a winter problem or the result of occasional surges in demand. It is a permanent capacity crisis which now exists throughout the year.

“The Government must fully fund and accelerate the hospital bed plan. It must also invest in step-down beds, home support, community care and the workforce required to open and safely staff additional capacity.

“Without urgent action, patients and frontline healthcare workers will continue to pay the price for the Government’s failure to properly plan, fund and expand our health service.”