Almost 40% of patients waited nine hours for a bed this month

Almost four out 10 patients waited more than nine hours to get a hospital bed this month, it emerged at yesterday’s meeting of the Joint Committee on Health and Children.

HSE director general Tony O’Brien presented figures on hospital admissions through emergency departments for the first half of this month.

Mr O’Brien said 61.9% of people were admitted to a hospital bed within nine hours of registration and admitted that this clearly meant that 38.1% were not.