{"id":585721,"date":"2026-08-07T06:30:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-07T06:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/585721\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T06:30:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T06:30:08","slug":"heatstroke-may-be-contributing-to-hospital-overcrowding-in-ireland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/585721\/","title":{"rendered":"Heatstroke may be contributing to hospital overcrowding in Ireland"},"content":{"rendered":"

Almost 9,500 people aged 75 or over waited longer than 24 hours to get a hospital bed this year, as climate change-induced heatstroke<\/a> now becomes a factor that health chiefs must grapple with.<\/p>\n

The HSE said seasonal factors can affect numbers, \u201cincluding health complications of heat stress\u201d, but that no single factor is driving the summer surge that has led to what advocates call \u201cstark\u201d and \u201chugely concerning\u201d figures from hospital emergency departments so far this year.<\/p>\n

It has warned of risks of \u201cdehydration, heat exhaustion, and heatstroke<\/a>\u201d \u2014 especially for older people and other vulnerable people. Met \u00c9ireann said July was the second hottest since 1900<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The HSE said: \u201cFactors driving emergency department attendances and waiting times are complex. Seasonal factors may influence attendances, including health complications of heat stress, but as a specific factor, this is difficult to disaggregate from data available.\u201d<\/p>\n

Overall, 27,791 patients spent more than 24 hours in an emergency department between January and June. In addition, 58,894 left without being seen, including 10,650 for May alone.<\/p>\n

However, delays facing older patients have raised serious concerns.<\/p>\n

Cork, Kerry, Limerick, Waterford, and Dublin<\/p>\n

In June at Cork University Hospital, some 231 over-75s spent longer than 24 hours in the emergency department. At University Hospital Kerry, it stood at 31.<\/p>\n

In University Hospital Limerick, 59 older patients waited that long. University Hospital Waterford was one of only four hospitals without patients in this category in June. The highest was St Vincent\u2019s University Hospital in Dublin, which saw 178.<\/p>\n

Delays increase risk of mortality\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Studies repeatedly show negative effects from these delays, including the risk of increased mortality and death.<\/p>\n

Camille Loftus, head of advocacy and public affairs at Age Action, said: \u201cIt is a horrendous situation for anybody, but if you\u2019re older and unwell, that\u2019s an even more difficult situation to manage.<\/p>\n

\n Those figures are really concerning, and it\u2019s obviously really concerning for the staff too.\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

She said there is \u201cclearly a need for more beds\u201d and called for more support for preventative medicine programmes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019d like to see that because it will help reduce admissions but it\u2019s never going to eliminate them,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd 24 hours is an enormous length of time to wait.\u201d<\/p>\n

Data released to David Cullinane<\/p>\n

The data was released to Sinn F\u00e9in health spokesman David Cullinane, who said the figures are \u201cvery stark\u201d.<\/p>\n

He warned: \u201cThis is not just a winter crisis anymore. The figures for older people are especially worrying. Almost 9,500 patients aged 75 and over waited more than 24 hours.<\/p>\n

\n These are often frail and vulnerable patients who should not be left sitting in an emergency department for that length of time.\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

Nearly 59,000 people leaving an emergency department without being seen \u201cshould be a major warning sign for the Government\u201d, he said, adding: \u201cPeople do not leave an emergency department for no reason. In many cases, they have been waiting too long and feel they have no other option.\u201d<\/p>\n

At Mercy University Hospital in Cork, between 203 and 318 people left early every month. Similarly, at Tipperary University Hospital, between 143 and 222 people left. At University Hospital Waterford, between 225 and 400 left monthly.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe staff are doing their best in very difficult conditions,\u201d Mr Cullinane said.<\/p>\n

He called for Government funding for published plans for \u201cthousands of new hospital beds\u201d, saying \u201cannouncing beds is not the same as building and staffing them\u201d.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for HSE Dublin and South-East said its hospitals saw just over 10,000 more patients this year so far.<\/p>\n

She linked the pressures to more older patients, seasonal illness, and \u201chigher numbers of acute injuries and illnesses\u201d.<\/p>\n

In contrast, at Children\u2019s Health Ireland, summer activity is as expected, despite a 2.7% jump in numbers compared to last year.<\/p>\n

Its patient time in emergency departments is \u201cimproving all the time\u201d, and it has seen a significant decline in the number of children leaving early.<\/p>\n

Niamh Griffin, Health Correspondent\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Almost 9,500 people aged 75 or over waited longer than 24 hours to get a hospital bed this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":585722,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[21911,187201,185200,185249,191786,2885,79,2120,61,60,43,767],"class_list":["post-585721","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-hospital-overcrowding","tag-kerry-news","tag-limerick-news","tag-tipperary-news","tag-waterford-news","tag-climate-change","tag-cork-news","tag-hse","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-weather"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585721","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=585721"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585721\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/585722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=585721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=585721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=585721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}