Equivalent of 450 beds lost to delays as hospitals struggle to discharge patients on time
The Minister for Health’s strategy for overcrowding in hospitals has been called into question recently by local TD Sorca Clarke.
The Sinn Féin TD pointed out that the number of beds lost to delayed transfers of care has surged by 15% between Quarter 1 2025 and Quarter 1 2026.
Bed days lost is a calculation of the number of 24-hour periods where a bed is unavailable to a new patient, despite the previous patient being ready for transfer to home or another care option.
It is one measure used to judge the efficiency of bed use in hospitals.
According to the HSE 42,123 bed days were lost due to delayed transfers of care over the course of quarter 1 2026, up from 36,078 in quarter 1 2025.
On average at the end of each of the three months, 504 beds were unavailable due to a delayed transfer of care.
Dividing for the number of days in quarter 1, the data shows that the equivalent of more than 450 hospital beds were unavailable on a given day because of delayed transfers of care.
According to Clarke this data shows that patients are being left to wait in acute hospitals not because they need to be there, but because of a lack of transfer options.
Deputy Clarke said that shortages in step down beds and home care packages are major drivers of delayed discharges, which she linked to a lack of strategic planning.
“The extent of bed days lost across the hospital system because of delayed transfers of care is staggering,” she explained.
“There is clearly a significant problem with delayed discharges at St James’ Hospital and St Vincent’s Hospital in Dublin, and in Letterkenny, Galway, and Sligo, and to a lesser extent but still present in regional hospitals like UHW and UHL.
“The data released by the HSE shows that the equivalent of more than 450 hospital beds were unavailable at any one time not because patients needed to be in them, and not for any infection prevention reasons, but because the hospital was unable to transfer the patient home or to another care facility, meaning that bed was unavailable to a new patient.
“This figure crystallises the problem in our hospitals – emergency departments are backed up and patients are left waiting on trolleys because there are not enough beds; meanwhile, there are hundreds of patients lying in hospital at any one time waiting to go home or to a new care facility that is more appropriate for their needs, but the support they need is not available to them.
“As a result, delayed transfers of care are causing a loss to the hospital system of more than 450 beds on any given day.
“These are patients who are ready to go home, but who cannot get home support; patients who are ready to go to a step-down facility, but there is no bed or nursing or physio team available to take them.
“These are not patients who want to be or need to be in hospital, yet they are left in hospital because there is no alternative.
“This is exactly the problem that Sláintecare was solving, delivering high quality, lower cost care, closer to home and de-pressurising our hospitals.
“That work has simply not happened on the scale needed, and we can see it in growing delayed transfers and growing waiting lists for home care.
“These figures show that, right across the State, there is a problem.
“The Minister for Health talks a strong game about efficiency in hospitals, but she has failed to put together a comprehensive, whole-system plan that turbocharges home and community care to relieve pressure on hospitals.
“The Minister must take a hard look at home and step-down care waiting lists and implement a plan for quicker discharges from hospital.”