A&E crisis deepens at Tallaght Hospital

Patients at Tallaght Hospital’s emergency department now face waits of more than five hours before being seen.

This is according to figures released by the hospital to Labour TD Ciarán Ahern which reveal that average wait-times have soared by 43 percent in just five years, rising from three and a half hours in 2020 to over five hours in 2024.

The local TD says the grim reality on the ground is even worse than the statistics suggest, with some patients enduring waits of 12 hours or more, and in extreme cases up to two full days, before receiving treatment.

“An almost 50% increase in wait-times to be seen by a doctor in just 5 years is completely unacceptable,” he said.

“And that’s only where the patient is actually seen.

“We know that many people simply give up after waiting hours on end.”

According to the Dublin South-West representative, overcrowding and a shortage of beds mean that even once patients are seen, many face the indignity of spending nights on trolleys in corridors.

“I’m constantly hearing from people who have spent upwards of 12 hours waiting to be seen and then all too often have to go through the indignity of spending the night on a trolley in an overcrowded corridor because there isn’t enough space,” he said.

“I know of one patient who had to wait 48 hours in A&E to be seen.”

While he praised the hospital’s staff as “brilliant” and “doing their level best to accommodate everyone,” he said they were being stretched to breaking point with limited resources.

“The care, when received, is second to none, but they’re being stretched to their limits, facing enormous amounts of pressure and stress with very limited resources,” he said.

With winter approaching, Deputy Ahern has called on Minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill to take immediate action before the situation worsens further.

“The Minister for Health needs to get a handle on this. The winter months will soon be approaching and the problem is only going to get worse unless urgent intervention happens now,” he warned.

Deputy Ahern identified several causes for the escalating wait-times.

“The causes of these long wait-times are obvious – not enough beds in TUH, no public local injury unit, insufficient nursing home spaces and a serious lack of community care.

“There’s 40% fewer GPs in the hospital’s catchment area in Dublin South-West than the national average,” he said.

He added that each of these challenges was solvable but required “leadership and commitment” from the Minister.

“As a matter of urgency, we need to see additional onsite and offsite bed capacity for Tallaght Hospital delivered, and the construction of a new ward block must be at the top of the Minister’s list of priorities,” he said.

In response to Deputy Ahern, Tallaght University Hospital acknowledged the scale of the challenge but pointed to significant pressures that have made timely access to care increasingly difficult.

John Kelly, Deputy Chief Executive of the hospital, confirmed in a statement to Deputy Ahern that there has been a year-on-year increase in the number of patients over the age of 75 presenting at the Emergency Department, alongside a rise in the overall complexity of cases.

“The Hospital works continuously to provide timely access to beds for admitted patients, however there is a clear underlying requirement to develop additional onsite and offsite bed capacity,” Mr Kelly said. He confirmed that this need had been recognised by the HSE, which has approved funding to develop a new ward block at the hospital.

Mr Kelly also pointed to initiatives underway to reduce the number of patients needing to attend the Emergency Department in the first place.

“The Hospital has developed patient pathways in collaboration with HSE colleagues in the community to reduce the number of patients presenting to ED through the roll out of the Enhanced Community Care programme with the aim of admission avoidance by enhancing and increasing community health services,” he said.

But he acknowledged that the shortage of local GPs was adding to the strain.

“Unfortunately GP density in our catchment area is 40% less than the national average which puts our GP colleagues under similar access pressures,” he said.

Bed shortages and delayed discharges remain among the hospital’s biggest hurdles.

“The primary challenge for the Hospital remains the number and acuity of patients presenting to the ED and the limited bed capacity that is currently available to the Hospital.

“The challenge of timely egress for patients is ongoing, with unavoidable delays in patient discharges occurring due to the lack of available nursing home beds,” Mr Kelly said.

He also highlighted the absence of a local injury unit within the Tallaght catchment area as a major factor contributing to Emergency Department overcrowding.

“The absence of a public local injury unit within the Hospital’s catchment area is a significant factor contributing to pressure on ED services,” he said.

The hospital has submitted a proposal to develop such a unit, which could open in early 2026 if approved.

While apologising for the hardship faced by patients waiting long hours, Mr Kelly insisted that urgent cases were always prioritised.

“The Hospital regrets the extended wait times that some patients experience while awaiting treatment through the ED, however priority is given at all times to those requiring the most urgent medical care,” he said.

The figures provided by the hospital show a clear worsening of wait-times year on year since 2020. In that year, patients waited on average 3 hours and 33 minutes from registration to be seen by a clinician.

In 2021 the figure rose to 3 hours and 49 minutes, before jumping significantly in 2022 to 4 hours and 48 minutes.

In 2023 the average dipped slightly to 4 hours and 13 minutes but in 2024 climbed again to 5 hours and 2 minutes.

“Each of those issues is solvable but it will require leadership and commitment from Minister Carroll MacNeill,” Ahern said.

Without significant intervention, the outlook for A&E patients attending Tallaght University Hospital may be bleak as winter approaches.