In July 2019, Children’s Health Ireland opened a new state-of-the-art facility care for sick children on the grounds of Connolly Hospital in Blanchardstown. The new centre brought fast, convenient, and high quality care closer to home for the children and young people of Dublin 15, North Dublin, Co Kildare and Co Meath.

In 2020, 6,795 children presented to the Urgent Care Centre at Connolly.

Patients can come to the centre with or without a GP referral letter and do not require an appointment.

Of these 6,795 patients:

• 2,815 were aged 0 – 5years
• 3,670 were aged 6 years – 14 years
• 310 were aged 14+ years
• 3,540 (51%) presented with injuries,
• 3,255 (49%) patients presented with other conditions

95% of children were discharged home after their visit to the urgent care centre. A small number of children were transferred for further investigation and treatment to the children’s hospitals at Temple Street, Crumlin and Tallaght.

The average amount of time spent by patients in the urgent care centre is 122 minutes (excluding the short-stay observation unit). This is the time it takes from registration to being discharged from the Urgent Care Centre after being seen and receiving the appropriate treatment by a doctor.