Cut to Laois hospital's 6,400 waiting list but paediatrics under pressure

placeholder image — Midland Regional Hospital Portlaoise

Numbers waiting in Portlaiose hospital falls but demand for paediatric care surges

Nearly 90% of the 6,400 people on Portlaoise hospital's waiting lists are waiting for outpatient appointments, according to new Department of Health 'productivity' figures.

A new "interactive dashboard" published by the Minister for Health, Jennifer Carroll MacNeill shows an almost 1,000 cut in the active waiting list figure at the Laois hospital between May 2022 and May this year.

The dashboard shows the waiting list performance by speciality in the last three years at the Midland Regional Hospital Portlaoise. An analysis of these figures by the Leinster Express / Laois Live shows that the greatest increase in waiting was in the medical care of children.

The waits for paediatric respiratory medicine grew threefold between May 2022 and May 2025. The wait for general paediatrics rose by just over 100% while the wait for developmental paediatrics was up by nearly 100%.

Waits dropped in general surgery by nearly 70% and in general medicine by two-thirds.

There has been a 13% change in general waiting list numbers at Laois hospital since 2022 and it appears that substantially fewer people are waiting over 12 months for care.

Nearly 2,300 out of the 7,367 waiting list in 2022 were waiting over 12 months to be seen. By May 2025, the equivalent figure was 937. In May 2025, a total of 4,030 were waiting less than half a year for care. This contrasts with 3,184 in May 2022.

While the numbers waiting at Portlaoise hospital has fallen, Laois residents face longer waiting lists elsewhere as the Laois facility has fewer services than some of its sister hospitals in the Dublin Midland Group, which have longer waiting lists and where Laois people are referred to for care.

New wing at Portlaiose hospital nears completion.

The dashboard showed that there were about 18,000 waiting list in Tullamore where waiting numbers have increased since 2022. Naas General had a waiting list of just over 11,700 this May which is up from 10,475 in May 2022.

However, waits over 12 much have improved substantially at the Offaly and Kildare hospitals.

The figures is contained in a new "interactive dashboard of important health service productivity data" published by the Minister for Health, Jennifer Carroll MacNeill.

A statement to the Leinster Express / Laois Live says it provides insights, detailing healthcare investment, workforce, activity and performance across the health service.

Nationally, 717,000 were on active waiting lists in Irish hospitals in May 2025. The reduction since May 2022 is 2%.