Three ICUs had no urgent beds for 100-plus days last year

The figures released to Sinn Féin health spokesman David Cullinane reveal that almost all Irish hospital intensive care units operated above 90% capacity for more than 100 days in 2024. Picture: iStock

Three hospital ICUs had no beds available for urgent admissions for more than 100 days last year, according to new figures, prompting calls to scale up the number of bed available.

Beaumont Hospital in Dublin was operating at over 100% occupancy for a total of 266 days in 2024, the new data shows.

The hospital was at above 90% for all but one day last year.

Safe ICU occupancy is generally considered 85% although the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine recommends an appropriate bed occupancy rate of 75%.

High occupancy rates are associated with a deterioration in the quality of care.

St Vincent’s University Hospital and Limerick University Hospital were also over capacity for a large period of the year — at 166 and 105 days respectively. Cork University Hospital ICU was over 100% occupancy for 96 days.

Overcrowding in ICUs is an issue across the country as shown by data from the National Office of Clinical Audit which was released to Sinn Féin TD David Cullinane.

The figures reveal that almost all hospital ICUs operated above 90% capacity for more than 100 days in 2024, with six remaining at this rate for over 300 days.

Mercy Hospital Cork was over 95% occupancy for 315 days while a further 12 were at similar rates for more than 200 days in 2024.

Overcrowding in intensive and high-dependency care and resuscitation bays have in the past led directly to delays and avoidable deaths, Mr Cullinane said: 

Thousands of hospital beds have been promised, but the Government has never committed the necessary funding to deliver them. 

"This must be a wake-up call for Government, who must urgently invest in making our hospitals safe,” the party spokesperson for health said.

The ICU is one of the most sensitive parts of a hospital where people receive lifesaving care from dedicated and specialised healthcare workers who cannot do their job safely or effectively in an over-capacity ICU which presents serious and life-threatening risks to patients, said Mr Cullinane.

Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation general secretary Phil Ní Sheaghdha said the occupancy rates in ICUs are “hugely concerning” as many hospitals are consistently over the 85% occupancy rate.

She said it is clear from the data that the number of ICU beds must be scaled up in Cork, Dublin and Limerick.

Each ICU bed requires seven highly specialised nurses to provide one-to-one care to patients.

“The turnover is very high in this area of nursing. The availability of training places and recruitment of posts is not keeping pace,” said Ms Ní Sheaghdha.

“The illnesses that require admission to ICU are not changing, so it is clear demographic changes are having an impact on the number of ICU beds required.”

As hospitals are shown to consistently work at above safe levels, there are too few beds available to respond to a major unexpected incident something that became very apparent during the covid-19 pandemic.

Mr Cullinane said that during the pandemic ICU occupancy was a primary driver of “harsh society-wide restrictions”.

He said: “It seems that that Government has learned nothing, and little progress has been made in the last five years to improve hospital safety and resilience.”