Minister Carroll MacNeill welcomes improved Emergency Department performance over the August bank holiday weekend and thanks all healthcare staff for their effort and commitment
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From: Department of Health
- Published on: 5 August 2025
- Last updated on: 5 August 2025
Following the St. Brigid’s bank holiday weekend, the Minister for Health, Jennifer Carroll MacNeill, requested the Health Service Executive (HSE) to provide a deeper analysis of hospital consultant rostering in all acute hospitals, to cover a focused analysis of future periods’ rostering of senior decision makers in the evenings, on weekends and public holidays.
To drive sustainable improvements in the timely delivery of urgent and emergency care, an increased focus was put on the delivery of integrated services on a seven-day basis.
In February, the HSE CEO, Bernard Gloster asked the HSE Regional Executive Officers (REOs) to change consultant rosters by the end of June to ensure that there are consultants ordinarily rostered on site over the weekends and in the evenings. This is supported by the Public Only Consultant Contract (POCC) which provides for rostered work from 8am-10pm Monday to Friday, and 8am-6pm on Saturdays. Focus is now being placed on realising the benefits of the POCC by maximising the use of the hours in the contract to increase access to services in the evenings and at weekends.
Speaking today, Minister Carroll MacNeill said:
“As Minister for Health, I am focused on delivering meaningful improvements across our healthcare system. Central to this is the development of a 7-day health service, ensuring that patients can access essential care every day of the week. Progress has been made over the last number of bank holiday weekends to ensure that patients receive the care they need in a timely and efficient manner throughout the week.
“The increased presence of consultants on-site over the August bank holiday weekend was a major factor in the significant 51% reduction of trolley numbers when compared to St Brigid’s weekend. There were 55% fewer patients waiting on trolleys at 8.00am on Tuesday 5 August, when compared to the Tuesday after the St Brigid’s bank holiday weekend in February this year.”
Patient flow must be carefully managed by each hospital seven days a week. The number of patients admitted and discharged must be kept balanced to avoid congestion, which results in patients waiting on a trolley for a bed. Key to this is the rostering of consultants and support services onsite at weekends and in the evenings.
Minister Carroll MacNeill also expressed her thanks to healthcare staff for their effort and commitment:
“I extend my sincere thanks to the staff in Emergency Departments, and throughout hospital and community services for their work over the bank holiday weekend. Services again undertook significant work in the week preceding the bank holiday weekend to maximise discharges and patient flow, which was the key factor in ensuring that most sites had sufficient capacity to meet demands over the bank holiday weekend.”
A number of sites continue to focus on balancing capacity and demand, avoiding congestion and optimising patient flow, including Connolly Hospital, Midlands Regional Hospital (MRH) Tullamore and University Hospital Waterford (UHW).
Over the coming weeks and months there will a sustained focus on leadership and Urgent and Emergency Care (UEC) performance in sites of concern, with site-specific initiatives including Delayed Transfer of Care (DTOC) management, improving access to diagnostics and patient flow measures.