CHI Connolly is treating hundreds every week

THE new urgent care centre at Children’s Health Ireland (CHI) at Connolly in Blanchardstown, which opened last summer, is now treating over 300 patients a week, it has been confirmed.

Figures released by CHI show that the centre has treated over 2,700 children to date. In the week before Christmas, 304 children attended the facility, an average of over 60 per day.

The new outpatient department located at the facility had seen 1,296 consultant-led attendances before the end of 2019, the majority of whom had been on a waiting list for up to two years to see a general paediatrician in CHI at Temple Street, Crumlin or Tallaght. 

The new, state of the art paediatric outpatient and urgent care facility at Connolly offers a range of services to children, young people and their families. It is regarded as a major milestone in the new children’s hospital project and a significant investment in healthcare.

These services include urgent care for the treatment of minor injury and illness that requires prompt treatment but is not life threatening and does not require a visit to an emergency department. Children with minor injuries, such as fractures, sprains, minor burns, small cuts and illnesses such as vomiting, diarrhoea and mild asthma, should all come to the new centre. The urgent care centre is a walk-in service and no appointment is necessary. 

 Dr Ciara Martin, Consultant in Paediatric Emergency Medicine at CHI, said: “CHI at Connolly in Blanchardstown is already having a positive impact on children, young people, their families and staff for future generations to come. Not only has it helped with the current pressures on emergency departments in our children’s hospitals, it has enabled us to remove hundreds of children from outpatient waiting lists and to give them the care they need.

“As awareness of the facility has grown, following a sustained campaign by CHI across a number of channels, attendances have grown significantly. CHI at Connolly in Blanchardstown represents the first step   of the journey towards new and improved paediatric health care by bringing fast, convenient, quality care close to home.”

 Delivering paediatric outpatient care is a core activity of CHI with 145,000 attendances in 2018. The CHI Outpatient waiting lists had dropped from 47,717 at the end of May to 44,175 (an eight percent reduction) at the end of November. Those waiting over 12 months has dropped from 19,525 to 17,030 (a 12 percent reduction) over the same period.

The General Paediatrics Outpatient waiting list had dropped from 5,511 at the end of April to 3,566 at the end of November (a 35 percent reduction).