PRESS RELEASE | Minister for Health thanks staff for their work over the St Patrick’s bank holiday weekend

PRESS RELEASE: 18 March 2025

Minister for Health, Jennifer Carroll McNeill TD, thanks staff for their work in reducing Emergency Department overcrowding over the St Patrick’s bank holiday weekend

The number of patients waiting on ED trolleys at 8am over the St Patrick’s bank holiday weekend (Saturday-Monday) was reduced by 70% when compared to the St Brigid’s bank holiday weekend this year. 

This resulted in 63% less patients waiting on ED trolleys at 8am this morning (Tuesday), when compared with the same Tuesday after the St Brigid’s bank holiday weekend in February this year. Attendances at Emergency Departments in hospitals were 4% lower this weekend when compared to the St Brigid’s bank holiday weekend.

Minister Carroll McNeill said:

“I want to thank the staff in emergency departments, and throughout hospital and community services for their work over the St Patrick’s bank holiday weekend, which has delivered safer and more timely access to emergency and urgent care for patients, whilst also providing a safer and better place to work for staff.”

This period also saw discharges from acute hospitals increase by 8%.  This included an increase in discharges on Saturday and Sunday with 175 more patients discharged compared to the St Brigid’s bank holiday weekend. 

Minister Carroll McNeill added:

“I was quite alarmed by the growth in the number of patients waiting on trolleys after the St Brigid’s bank holiday weekend which went from 253 to 617 trolleys in a three-day period from Saturday morning to Tuesday morning. Recognising that this is in large part connected to the presence of senior decision makers on site, I requested the HSE to provide a deeper analysis of hospital consultant rostering in all acute hospitals, to cover a focused analysis of future periods’ rostering of senior decision makers in the evenings, on weekends and public holidays, initially covering St Patrick’s weekend.”

The number of patients waiting on ED trolleys at 8am over this St Patrick’s bank holiday weekend (Saturday-Monday) was down 54% compared to the St Patrick’s bank holiday weekend in 2024. This resulted in 51% less patients waiting on ED trolleys at 8am this morning, when compared with the same Tuesday after the St Patrick’s bank holiday in 2024. This was despite attendances at Emergency Departments being at the same level, when compared to the same bank holiday period in 2024.

This period also saw discharges from acute hospitals increase by 10%, of particular note was the increase in discharges on Saturday and Sunday with an increase of 179 patients discharged compared to the same period in 2024.

While these initial results, which are subject to further verification, are encouraging the HSE and the Minister for Health will be reflecting on the factors that influenced this turnaround in performance in the coming days.

Minister Carroll McNeill added:

“We have seen a more stabilised position over this bank holiday weekend and this level of performance needs to be achieved every weekend to benefit our patients and our health care staff. I am determined to work with the HSE to make sure this momentum continues and to deliver sustained improvements in the provision of safe and timely access to emergency and urgent care for the people of Ireland”.

To drive sustainable improvements in the timely delivery of urgent and emergency care, an increased focus is being put on the delivery of integrated services on a seven-day basis.

Fundamental to this is ensuring sufficient Senior Decision Makers (SDMs) are rostered to discharge patients throughout the entire week, including evenings, weekends and public holidays.

To support to the provision of 7/7 services, the Public Only Consultant Contract, introduced in March 2023 provides for evening, extended out of hours and Saturday rostering. A core objective of this contract is to enhance senior decision-making presence on-site. Over 60% of all consultants working in the public health system are now on the new POCC. Attention is focused on realising the benefits and increasing productivity by maximising the use of the hours in the contract to enhance patient care and increase access to services in the evenings and at weekends.