The “growing population of elderly” people living in Ireland has contributed to over 5,400 deaths in Emergency Departments over the last five years.

That’s according to emergency consultant Dr Chris Luke, who also noted that a higher percentage of people are now attending EDs than ever before.

The ED death toll was published in a report from the Irish Medical Times today, which found over 1,000 deaths happened in the last year alone – up 200 from 2019.

On The Pat Kenny Show today, Dr Luke said that while many people have been shocked by the figures, ED deaths are more common than people imagine.

“We are used to hearing about tragic one-off deaths, and there’s a sense that if somebody dies in an emergency department, then it’s a calamity,” he said.

“But in reality, many people die in an emergency department or are brought in dead, to be honest.

“The figures don’t distinguish between people who have been brought in dying, and many of those people should have been receiving palliative care in a nursing home, a hospital, or even at home.

“Very often, they’re brought in [to EDs] to actually die.”

Cork University Hospital had the highest number of fatalities in its emergency department, with 158 deaths - 49 more than five years ago.

A hospital worker wheels a patient on a trolley through a ward after an NHS operation. 5 May 2016. Alamy.com

Dr Luke said there are other explanations for the high death toll.

“We obviously have a growing population of the elderly and the frail,” he said.

“There are also so few portals of access to the health service that the emergency department doorway has become the eye of the needle.

“You’re trying to squeeze people in there now who would have previously bypassed the emergency department.”

ED attendance figures

Dr Luke said the number of people presenting to EDs in Ireland has become “staggering.”

“There are around 1.7 million people attending emergency departments in Ireland, which is a staggering proportion of the population,” he said.

“It’s emphasising the lack of alternative medical care for people, that there’s just simply too many people coming to the emergency department.

“It’s the same picture in Britain, where a third of the population now go to A&E every year.”

Between 2019 and 2024, the number of people presenting at emergency departments has increased by 110,000.

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Main image: Close up of a saline IV drip for patient in hospital. Image:Ratthanan Thanacharoennat / Alamy Stock Photo