Record 1.7m people received emergency care in Irish hospitals last year

The total of almost 1.7m patients receiving emergency care is 29,000 more than in 2022.

A record 1,694,512 people received emergency care in Irish hospitals last year, according to new figures.

The HSE’s 2023 hospital figures, published on Monday, show a record number of people received day-case care, attended outpatient appointments, and received hospital care as inpatients from January to December last year.

The total of almost 1.7m patients receiving emergency care is approximately 29,000 more than the total treated in 2022, and almost 180,000 more than the total recorded during 2019, the year before the outbreak of the covid-19 pandemic.

The HSE’s figures also show a steady increase in the number of people being treated at injury units, with a total of 165,098 attendances in 2023, up from 147,419 in 2022 and 99,222 in 2019.

In its statement on the figures, the HSE acknowledged that “unacceptably long waiting lists” remain for many hospital procedures and that emergency departments “continue to face sustained pressure”.

However, the HSE says the record number of patients seen and treated in 2023 “reflects the investment in the waiting list action plans over the last number of years”. These plans, the HSE says, have “delivered additional activity as well as facilitating a range of waiting-list reduction measures and reform initiatives across hospital and community”.

The HSE’s figures also show that some 1.33m new hospital appointments were delivered last year, a 9.1% increase on the 2022 total.

The health service also says that approximately 80,000 patients were removed from waiting lists in 2023 through “additional outpatient clinics, including weekend and blitz clinics, clinical validation, clinical insourcing, and accessing capacity from private hospitals”, and the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF) also commissioned more than 156,000 episodes of care over the course of the year.

There was an 11% reduction in the number of patients waiting longer than 10 to 12 weeks for a procedure, and a one-third decrease in those waiting for more than a year, while the average wait times for outpatients was reduced from 9.7 months in 2022 to 7.5 months last year, according to the figures.

'Last year has the highest ever amount of health care delivered in the State. However, it is clear that there is still much to do,' said HSE CEO Bernard Gloster. Picture: Sasko Lazarov/Photocall Ireland

“Last year has the highest ever amount of health care delivered in the State. However, it is clear that there is still much to do, and we are building on that work through our 2024 Service Plan,” said HSE CEO Bernard Gloster.

He said that, to meet the demands of a growing ageing population, the HSE’s “focus on older people has to be central to all of our efforts”.

We are currently undergoing structural reform to realign hospital, community, and public health services into six regional teams, focused on delivering person-centred care to meet the health needs of the people in each region.

 “Two critical areas that will remain high priority are improving access to care for people on waiting lists and improving unscheduled and emergency care,” he said.

This, he said, would involve hospitals and the development of community-based healthcare “to support people to stay well and avoid the need to go to hospital or reduce the number of hospital stays”.