Midland Regional Hospital Portlaoise in top five fastest Emergency Departments

New figures released by the Health Service Executive (HSE) show that Midland Regional Hospital Portlaoise in Laois has the fifth fastest Emergency Department (ED) time in Ireland.

The data, given to Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín TD in response to a parliamentary question, show that the length of time a person spends in EDs now averages seven hours, one hour longer than a decade ago.

Deputy Tóibin wanted to know how long people wait to get seen, but the HSE told him this is not calculated. Instead they gave figures for the time people spend once admitted in an ED before being either sent home or given a proper hospital bed.

Portlaoise hospital is in fifth position, at an average of 5.1 hours in 2025. Ten years ago it was 4.6 hours, rising to 6.6 hours in 2017.  

The most time spent in EDs is in Tallaght University Hospital (12.6 hours), while the lowest was seen at St Luke's General Hospital in Kilkenny (3.6 hours).

The shortest durations in EDs are at St Luke's Kilkenny at 3.6 hours, St Michael's hospital Dun Laoghaire 3.7 hours, Children's Health Ireland - including Crumlin hospital 4.3 hours, and University Hospital Waterford 4.5 hours.

The HSE sent out a letter to the Aontú TD, seen by the Leinster Express / Laois Live. They said wait times in busy periods can be "intensive" and that EDs are for "serious and unexpected injury or illness".

Deputy Tóibín said the waiting time are "scandalous". 

"Extended wait times in EDs leads to delayed treatment and poorer outcomes for patients. They also show the enormous pressure that is on our hospital EDs. On average hundreds of thousands of patients wait for more than one hour longer for treatment in EDs around the country than they did 10 years ago. Despite some improvement in the figures in recent years, waiting times are getting worse again. 7.2 hours is the average wait times for a patient nationally, but for many hospitals its much worse. This is scandalous.

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"We know that since 2017 over a half a million patients have left emergency departments around the country without being seen at all. A key question here which I believe the HSE needs to answer is how many people have died because they were left waiting too long before being seen in an emergency department. It's absolutely scandalous that at a time when all these statistics were going in the wrong direction the HSE decided to impose a ban on recruitment across our hospitals. We need to ensure that we redirect investment away from the layers of administration to the front line. Hospitals need to be paid on the basis of the number of operations, treatments, therapies, engagements they have with patients, not on the layers of management that they have. We need to end the current recruitment embargo for front line staff. We must provide improved pay terms and conditions to get the front line staff we need".