O’Donoghue calls for minor injuries unit for Balbriggan to take pressure off Beaumont

Labour TD Robert O’Donoghue has said that pressure could be taken off Beaumont Hospital if a minor injuries clinic were established in Balbriggan.

The Dublin Fingal West TD noted that nearly 30,000 people are living in Balbriggan itself, and due to the lack of healthcare facilities in the area, local residents feel compelled to either travel to Drogheda or Beaumont Hospital to get treatment.

The Labour TD said the establishment of a minor injuries clinic would help ease the pressure on the wider healthcare system.

Speaking in the Dáil last week, O’Donoghue noted that there are between 60,000 and 70,000 people living around the Balbriggan area of the constituency and said that the area is reliant on Drogheda and Beaumont Hospital’s medical facilities.

“As we know, these hospitals are under tremendous strain. Constituents regularly report waiting eight, ten or 12 hours for treatment of injuries, such as sprains, small breaks and minor infections, that do not require full hospital interventions.”

O’Donoghue said the situation is “not fair” on patients or hospital staff. 

“We all accept that hospital emergency departments must prioritise serious case, however, the reality is that a significant proportion of attendances at Beaumont and Drogheda hospitals could be treated in properly staffed community-based minor injury hubs.”

“It has already been agreed that there is a need to establish a minor injury hub plan for Balbriggan as well in the context of the wider hospital avoidance strategy. The proposal is about prevention, efficiency and patient dignity,” he said.

O’Donoghue said it was “particularly frustrating” that local residents are being told that Balbriggan primary care centre is full, despite only a portion of the building being leased by the HSE, and said there is space there that could be used for GP services.

“There is an existing healthcare space in Balbriggan that could be used to deliver a minor injuries hub. The provision of such a hub could immediately reduce pressure on the emergency departments in Beaumont and Drogheda if the HSE engaged constructively on leasing and service planning,” he said.

O’Donoghue said that the establishment of a minor injuries hub in Balbriggan would divert thousands of non-life-threatening cases away from Beaumont and Drogheda, free up emergency department capacity for critically ill patients, reduce waiting times and ambulance offloading delays and provide faster care “closer to home for my constituents in Dublin Fingal West.”

He noted the establishment of the clinic would align with Sláintecare and the HSE’s hospital avoidance objectives. 

“Other parts of the country already have minor injury units that operate for extended hours and that treat large volumes of patients safely and efficiently; Dublin Fingal West is one of the most rapidly expanding constituencies in the country and should not be an exception,” he said.

He said that the government and the HSE must “engage urgently with local representatives on available capacity within the Balbriggan primary care centre, progress a staffing and operations plan for a minor injuries hub and recognise that this project is a practical and cost-effective measure to relieve pressure on Beaumont and Drogheda hospitals.”

The Labour TD said, “this is not about future planning. It is about addressing the needs of a population that already exists and of hospitals that are already under pressure. The demand is clear: hospitals need relief. It is time to move from acknowledgement to action.”

Minister of State Kieran O’Donnell said that the government remains “fully committed” to the implementation of healthcare reform under the Sláintecare framework, and pointed to similar units that have been set up in Athlone, Ballina, Carlow and Tallaght, but, to O’Donohoe’s point, not in Balbriggan, which has the fastest-growing population of any area in Ireland.

O’Donnell touted the opening of units in similarly-sized areas to Balbriggan as where people can go for broken bones, sprains and burns, and have played a part in reducing congestion in Ireland’s acute hospitals.

The Fine Gael junior minister noted that in 2025, there were 222,697 attendances at injury units, representing a 5% increase compared to 2024 and that the median patient experience time is 1.3 hours.

O’Donnell noted that residents in Balbriggan currently have access to the Mater Smithfield rapid injury clinic in Dublin 7; the Dundalk injury unit at St. Joseph’s Hospital; and Connolly Hospital emergency department, which features a dedicated nurse-led minor injury unit.

“The Department and the HSE will continue to monitor population growth and geospatial implications to ensure that our urgent care footprint evolves to meet the needs of growing communities like Balbriggan,” he said, essentially saying that while the government and the HSE are aware of the growing population in Balbriggan, there were no immediate plans to introduce a similar unit for Balbriggan.

O’Donnell said, “in the interim, Balbriggan primary care centre continues to play a vital role in delivering a vast array of integrated services from chronic disease management and older people’s specialist teams to mental health and disability services. I assure the Deputy that I am committed to building further capacity in primary care by recruiting additional staff and promoting advanced practice roles to meet the needs of a growing population.”

O’Donnell’s points about minor injury clinics playing a large part in easing pressure on bigger hospitals underlined the point O’Donoghue was making – if similar units can be opened across Ireland, why not in Balbriggan?

O’Donoghue said, “we need to make a plan for Balbriggan to keep people, not just in Balbriggan but in Rush, Lusk and Skerries at the rural end, in the constituency and not travelling.”

“I accept there are the three locations the Minister of State outlined, but we should keep it within the community rather than send people into Dublin or up to Louth,” the Northside Labour TD said.

The 2022 census revealed Balbriggan’s rapidly growing and youthful population, with the population of Balbriggan itself rising from just over 10,000 in the 2002 census to nearly 25,000 in the 2022 census, with an average age of 33.6 years old.

O’Donoghue said “the infrastructure already exists in Balbriggan,” and urged the government to include Balbriggan in future plans for expanded healthcare services.

“There is real potential to expand services without the delays and costs of a new build,” he said, pointing to the pre-existing facility in the area.

“I urge the Minister of State to ensure Balbriggan, while not in the plan for 2026, is actively considered under the pull-out scheme and that the HSE engages locally to deliver a community hub that reflects government policy and local population need.”

“This is exactly the type of initiative that makes Sláintecare real on the ground,” he said.