Almost 15,000 patients walked out of Munster hospital emergency departments without treatment 

The average wait time in the emergency department of Mercy Hospital, Cork, was 10 hours.

Nearly 15,000 people walked out of Munster hospitals without being treated in the first seven months of this year, new data shows.

In total, 6.3% of patients who attended emergency departments (EDs) up to the end of July did not wait either to be seen or for treatment, an increase from 5.5% in 2025.

In total, 236,508 patients attended emergency departments across Cork University Hospital (CUH), University Hospital Limerick (UHL), Mercy University Hospital, University Hospital Kerry, Tipperary University Hospital, and University Hospital Waterford in the first seven months of this year.

Nearly 55% were in the emergency department for less than six hours, before being either treated and sent home or admitted to a bed, a fall from nearly 58% in the 12 months of 2025.

Just over 27% waited longer than nine hours compared to 25% the year before.

The average patient waited 15.3 hours in CUH, 8.3 hours in UHL, 10 in the Mercy, 8.4 in Kerry, 9.6 in Tipperary and 7.9 in Waterford, with CUH and Tipperary both seeing large increases compared to the previous year.

A total of 9,320 patients were in the ED for more than 24 hours in the first seven months of this year, representing 3.9%, also up from 3.2% in the entirety of 2025.

CUH was the worst performer in this regard, with more than 6% of its patients spending more than a day in the ED, up from 4% last year.

Of the six Munster hospitals with EDs, CUH saw the lowest share discharged within six hours in both years, with more than half of patients waiting longer than this.

CUH wait times increase

CUH waits increased across the board in 2026 compared to 2025, and one in three patients now stays more than nine hours, with a particular growth in very long stays.

However, few patients leave without finishing treatment, with the rate of patients who did not wait for treatment below 5% both years and decreasing slightly in 2026 to date compared to 2025.

UHL, meanwhile, saw the share of people waiting over 24 hours drop from 4.7% to 4%, while other wait time bands remained steady.

There was also an improvement from 8.1% to 7.4% in terms of patients who did not wait for their treatment to be finished, but the rate still accounts for one in 13 patients walking out of the hospital early, well above the rate in CUH.

However, the highest rate of people who did not wait to be seen was in the Mercy in Cork city centre, which rose to over 9% this year, up sharply from 6.5% in 2025.

Overall, emergency department attendance volume is up this year, with average monthly attendances across Munster rising nearly 7%, with CUH seeing the highest rise at 9%, though UHL remained the busiest hospital in the region.

The figures were provided to Social Democrat TD Pádraig Rice, who said: “Every day, our hospitals are operating under the constant pressure of overcrowding, short of both staff and beds.” 

He said the situation was particularly bad in Cork, where “patient safety and outcomes are being compromised by the chronic overcrowding”.