Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 16 April 2026
297. Deputy Michael Cahill asked the Minister for Health her plans to address overcrowding in the accident and emergency department at University Hospital Kerry and the trolley crisis; if the provision of a significant increase in the number of beds available will be expedited in order to address this longstanding issue; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [27834/26]
View answerThe provision of timely high-quality healthcare in Kerry University Hospital and across the health system is a priority for the Minister and this Government. The Unscheduled Emergency Care Plan (UEC) 2025-2026 set out a series of targeted actions within the 4 Pillars of:
Hospital Avoidance • Support patients / service users to access care close to home and at the lowest level of complexity
ED Operations • Ensure our most vulnerable patients receive safe, timely and high-quality care in our EDs.
In Hospital Care Delivery • Improve and standardise processes to reduce variation in care and length of stay, improve flow across our hospitals and support safe and timely discharge
Discharge Management • Facilitate safe and timely discharge and early supported discharge home or to community care as soon as it is safe to do so.
Targeted actions within these pillars focused on processes, resource integration and management, and governance to improve patient experience from a holistic perspective improving systems along every step of the patient’s healthcare journey.
These include but are not limited to:
• Make the most of admission avoidance services such as Rapid Access Clinics for Chronic Disease and Older Persons and mobile diagnostics
• Screen patients 75 years for delirium and frailty at the point of triage and provide early access to emergency and specialist gerontology care
• Implement processes and protocols to assign patients to specialty or dedicated wards with multidisciplinary care to support differentiated care requirements
• Adopt a ‘home first’ policy so that integrated discharge planning starts early and is defined by a person’s needs, will and preferences
There has been a significant increase in investment in University Hospital Kerry since 2020. The budget for UHK has increased from €112 million in 2020 to almost €185 million in 2025, an increase of 67% over this period.
The Department has also invested in staffing at the hospital. Staffing has increased by 31% (376) since the end of December 2020 (1,215) to end of October 2025 (1,591).
University Hospital Kerry has 283 inpatient beds (Adult and Paediatric), including 19 critical care beds. Since 2020, 34 additional beds were delivered in UHK. The Acute Inpatient Bed Capacity Expansion Plan 2024 – 2031 aims to deliver an additional 4,367 acute inpatient beds nationally including an additional 108 beds for UHK. This will bring additional capacity at UHK to 142.
