Over 1,700 left UHK emergency department early last year

Over 1,700 patients left the emergency department at University Hospital Kerry before completing their treatment last year.

That’s according to figures from the HSE, which count the number of ED patients who did not wait for, or left before completion of treatment in 2021.

45% of the patients who walked out without being formally discharged did so in the summer, with 775 patients leaving early between June and August.

UHK ranks 16th for patients walking out of emergency departments out of the 30 HSE hospitals, with over 75,000 doing so nationally last year.

The figures were provided to journalist Ken Foxe under the Freedom of Information Act.