Hundreds Of People In Ireland Died By Suspected Suicide After Contact With Health Services

In December, figures obtained by Kfm News revealed how more than half of all people who presented to Naas General Hospital with self-harm last year were not admitted to an in-patient ward

Hundreds of people died by suspected suicide within weeks of contact with health services in Ireland, according to internal HSE figures.

Records obtained by The Journal Investigates show 449 suspected suicides were logged on the HSE’s internal system between 2022 and 2024, involving patients with recent mental health contact.

The deaths are not publicly reported and can take months or years to appear in official suicide statistics, pending coroner inquests.

In December, figures obtained by Kfm News revealed how more than half of all people who presented to Naas General Hospital with self-harm last year were not admitted to an in-patient ward.

Over 12% of those presenting also left the hospital before a recommendation was provided. 

Just twenty-six per cent of patients were admitted for medical or psychiatric care, far lower than neighbouring hospitals such as Portlaoise, Mullingar and Tullamore.

Naas General Hospital now has a higher non-admission rate than Tallaght and St James’s.

Despite this, Naas still recorded more than three hundred individuals presenting with self-harm over the year, and one in five of them returned with repeat self-harm - the highest repetition rate in the region.

Women made up the majority of self-harm patients at Naas General Hospital  - 163 women compared to 142 men - and women were more likely to re-present, with almost one in four returning, compared with just under one in five men.

Self-harm presentations at Naas General Hospital is concentrated among young adults.

Women in their late teens and twenties form the single largest group presenting to the hospital, followed by men between the ages of 25-44.

In 2023, 14 people died by suicide in Kildare.

12 were male and two were female.

In 2022, the figure was 26, with 22 males and 4 females.

27 people died by suicide across the county in 2021.

Between 2017 and 2021, 110 people died by suicide in Kildare.

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