Patient presentations led to more than 100,000 admissions, with three-in-ten of these for patients aged 75 and over
Patients attended the emergency department more than 387,000 times in the first three months of 2025 – an increase of over 3,000 on the same period last year, and 45,000 up on 2023 figures.
New provisional HSE data show that attendances rose by 13.2 per cent between January and March this year compared to 2023. People aged 75 and older visited an ED 56,951 times in that period, an increase of 10,217 – or 21.9 per cent – on the first three months in 2023.
However, this year’s rises were much more modest when compared to last year. Health officials will hope this represents a levelling-off in the unprecedented high numbers of patients presenting to EDs since pandemic restrictions ended.
ED attendances in the first three months of 2025 resulted in clinicians admitting 100,616 patients for further care, representing an average conversion rate (the percentage of attending patients who were admitted) of 26 per cent.
Dublin’s Mater Hospital had the highest number of ED attendances, at 25,324. University Hospital Limerick (UHL) came in second with 22,101, followed by Cork University Hospital, with 20,919.
However, when it came to admissions, UHL had the most, with 6,951. This was followed by CUH with 6,089 and the Mater with 5,777.
Conversion rates across clinical site vary significantly, from 37.6 per cent in St Luke’s Hospital in Kilkenny to just 8.5 per cent in the Tallaght campus of Children’s Health Ireland. Among adult hospitals, Navan had the lowest conversion rate (14.7 per cent).
In the countries’ most often overcrowded EDs, the Mater had a relatively low conversion rate of 22.8 per cent. In CUH, this rises to 29.1 per cent while in UHL the rate is 31.5 per cent.
The figures were highlighted in the latest weekly Urgent and Emergency Care Performance Update, which covers the period up to March 30.
Unsurprisingly, older patients who attended the ED were far more likely to be admitted for follow-on care. People aged 75 and over accounted for just over 30,000 admissions in the first three months of this year, representing a conversion rate of 52.7 per cent.
Among the age group, UHL had the highest number of admissions, at 2,021, followed by CUH at 1,701 and Beaumont at 1,651.
Two-in-three older people (66 per cent) who presented to St Luke’s in Kilkenny went on to be admitted, the highest conversion rate for this cohort in the country. Following St Luke’s was Mayo University Hospital, with a 63.9 per cent rate, while Cavan General Hospital had a rate of 62.2 per cent.
The first-quarter figures come on the back of the HSE recently publishing its hospital activity update for the whole of 2024. It found that there were almost 1.6 million visits made to EDs around Ireland last year, up from 1.69 million in 2023.
Almost 130,000 of these visits (eight per cent) were patients returning to the ED after an initial attendance. When figures for attendances to injury and other units are included, incidences of emergency care last year totalled 1.84 million.
There were 495,955 admissions to ED in 2024, representing a conversion rate of 31 per cent. Emergency cases took up the majority of inpatient activity, with maternity admissions accounting for a further 101,197 incidences, and planned procedures representing 88,958 admissions.
Overall, inpatient activity last year numbered 686,110 hospital admissions, up from 648,557 in 2023.
