Over 3,200 people treated on trolleys in Kildare's main hospital in 2025

A total of 2,276 people were treated on trolleys at Naas Hospital last year.

It was the  fourth highest on the list of overcrowded hospitals in the eastern region behind Dublin hospitals St Vincent's (6,692), the Mater (4,595) and Tallaght (3,673).

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Connolly Hospital Blanchardstown was the least overcrowded in the region for the year with 944 patients on trolleys.

Elsewhere, Tullamore Hospital had an annual overcrowding figure of 73 while Portlaoise Hospital's number was 1,023.

The most overcrowded hospital in the State was University Limerick (22,473) followed by Galway (11,630), Cork (10,113) and Sligo (8,004).

The national overcrowding figure for 2025, according to the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, was 114,029 which included 1,248 children.

INMO general secretary Phil Ní Sheaghdha said: “Yet another year has passed with an unacceptably high number of patients being treated on trolleys, chairs and in other inappropriate bed spaces. Nurses, midwives and other healthcare professionals must not continue to shoulder public anger arising from repeated failures in planning across the health service.”

Ms Ní Sheaghdha added that while there was a slight reduction in the number of patients being treated in an inappropriate space the reliance on “surge beds which are not properly staffed”  is cause for concern.  

“There needs to be a turning point in how healthcare staffing is planned, starting with an immediate filling of all funded posts while  focusing on capacity, staffing and conditions across acute and community services.” 

She said nurses point to persistent staffing gaps across the public health service that are undermining their ability to deliver safe and timely care. 

“The continued use of trolleys and reliance on surge capacity mean that too many nurses are routinely working short-staffed.”

She said in many facilities unfilled rosters are becoming the norm rather than the exception, creating increasingly unsafe conditions.

“In March healthcare unions were assured that recruitment of posts would be a priority for the HSE, it is clear that this couldn’t be further from the case as over 6,500 funded posts are still vacant. We were told barriers to recruitment would be removed, yet authority is not being delegated to allow clinical decision-makers to fill posts.”