New record set for delayed discharges across Irish hospitals. What assurance is Government giving patients this bank holiday weekend?
04 April 2026
- For 23 consecutive days between March 11th and April 2nd, the number of delayed discharges across Irish hospitals was over 500 every day. These figures were over 20% higher compared with the same period in 2024.
- Far too many patients are effectively stuck in hospital because of an absence of step down care.
- Failure to invest in step down beds and community facilities is coming home to roost, with appalling knock on impact for those who need to be admitted into hospital.
- Government is planning for even greater failure this year as HSE capital spend for community care for older persons is 6% less in 2026 compared with 2025.
On Easter bank holiday weekend, Labour health spokesperson Marie Sherlock TD has raised serious concerns about the rapid rise in delayed discharges over the past month and the very real concerns for the admission of patients, in particular older patients into acute hospital care.
Deputy Sherlock said:
“The rapid rise in delayed discharges is absolutely frightening – for 23 consecutive days between March 11th and April 2nd, the number of delayed discharges surged above 500.
“This is having a very real impact on the length of waiting time to see seen in ED’s – last Sunday night, 95 patients across the country had to wait 24 hours or longer to be admitted. 12 of those patients were over the age of 75. This is an outrageous wait for any person, let alone an older and potentially much more vulnerable person.
“We know that on average for 2024 and 2025, over half of all over 75’s had to wait 9 hours or more to be admitted. At the rate the 2026 trend is going, this is going to get worse this year.
“While there has been a lot of talk about trolley numbers improving, the real metric has been the pace of admission into hospital for those who need it. The development of step down beds has been shockingly slow across the country, there have been delays to the opening of newly community nursing units such as Killarney and Letterkenny, concerns about the appropriateness of step down facilities in Cork and real shortages of care in the community for patients in Dublin’s south city and county and in the West and Northwest.
“That the HSE has been allocated less money in 2026 to develop community care for older persons compared with 2025 speaks volumes about the Government’s failure to grasp this crisis.
“We need to see a rapid response plan from Government working in tandem with hospitals on how they will reduce delayed discharges and we need to a serious increase in HSE funding to develop step down care facilities.”
ENDS