Hospital Overcrowding Dail Éireann — 2025-12-09 ============================================================ Mary Butler (FF), Waterford I thank Deputy Farrelly for the manner in which he has raised the issue. While acknowledging the challenges in Naas General Hospital, he spoke about this issue being no reflection on the staff and that the level of care being provided is exceptional. I want to acknowledge his work in advocating for the people of Kildare. I did not realise 250,000 people live in Kildare. That is huge population growth. Naas General Hospital is a 202 inpatient and 18 day bed acute public hospital, providing healthcare to over 250,000 people in the growing catchment area of Kildare and west Wicklow. Naas General Hospital caters for patient activity through emergency, inpatient, outpatients and day services departments. The hospital is the sole provider of acute care in the integrated health area and serves a significantly larger population than many of its model 3 hospital counterparts. Naas General Hospital continues to experience sustained pressure across all service areas. From January to October 2025, emergency department attendances have risen by 9% compared to the same period in 2024. Emergency department attendances of patients aged 75 and over have also risen by 9% in this timeframe. The average length of stay for patients aged over 75 is more than twice that of patients aged under 75, compounding pressure on bed capacity and overall patient flow. I acknowledge the fact that the Deputy said 255 people were on trolleys through the month of November. The last thing any of us wants to see are people waiting on trolleys, especially elderly people and those aged over 75. We have invested hugely in home care, day care and meals on wheels to provide as much support as possible to support people in living well in their own communities, but there comes a time when people have to present to hospital and be looked after. The emergency department can be very difficult for an elderly person when it is extremely busy. I want to highlight some of the good work being carried out at Naas General Hospital during these challenging circumstances. From January to October 2025, the median waiting time for all emergency department patients was down 18% compared to the same period in 2024. I accept there is more to be done. The HSE capital plan sets out the planned health infrastructure investment within a given year. Capital investment plays a critical role in enabling and enhancing health service provision. Construction is underway to repurpose and refurbish existing HSE accommodation in St. Mary's at Naas General Hospital to provide short-term accommodation for enhanced community care, the integrated care programme for older people, ICPOP, and chronic disease management services. Naas General Hospital is currently at design feasibility stage for multiple projects, including the conversion of an existing operating theatre and ancillary rooms into two endoscopy procedure rooms, increasing the total number of rooms from one to three. Another project involves a 15-cubicle transition unit for patient admissions and discharges to alleviate emergency department admission pressure. In 2020, Naas General Hospital received a €74 million budget. In 2025, the budget allocation for the hospital rose to €130 million. This investment in recent years is fundamental to supporting the ongoing development of services and ensuring that Naas General Hospital will continue to play an invaluable role in the delivery of health services to the local community in the years ahead. Notwithstanding the almost doubling of the budget between 2020 and 2025, I take on board the points the Deputy has raised. I will be very happy to discuss them with the Minister for Health, Deputy Carroll MacNeill. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2025-12-09/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:26+00:00 Sitting date: 2025-12-09