Louth Injury Unit continues to treat more patients

The Dundalk Injury Unit, based at the Louth Hospital, treated more than 11,000 patients last year.

The unit is one of 11 minor injury units located nationwide and is open seven days a week from 9am to 8pm.

The centre can treat patients aged 14 and over for a wide variety of injuries including sprains, fractures, facial injuries, lacerations to the face and head, cuts, eye injuries, bites, minor burns and scalds.

Although children under 14 aren’t currently treated at the unit, plans are in place to cater for children aged five and above at the centre in the coming months.

‘You don’t need a referral to attend the unit, you can present yourself the same as you can at the Emergency Department but the benefit of coming here instead of the ED is that you may not have to wait as long to be treated,’ explained Louth County Hospital Manager Louise O’Hare.

‘If you fracture or break a bone for instance we can treat you fully here, you’ll be seen by the doctor, then sent straight up for an x-ray and if there is a fracture you come back to the clinic, they put a cast on, put it in a sling, you’ll be given pain relief and you’ll get an appointment for the fracture clinic in Our Lady of Lourdes. Then you’ll attend Our Lady of Lourdes for a follow appointment and to see the Orthopaedic team. If there’s no fracture you’ll be given painkillers and sent home and you may possibly be told to come back for review the following week.

‘We have Physio appointments here as well so if someone has a sprain they can be seen, x-rayed and then come back for review and be sent for Physio here.’

Ms O’Hare said that while those who attend the unit are very happy with the treatment they receive and the speed at which they are seen, many members of the public are still not aware of the service available at the Minor Injury Unit in Dundalk.

‘We can give an excellent service for the category of patients that we see. It’s a rapid access service for patients so you would expect that people would come here and not spend so much time waiting in Our Lady of Lourdes but public awareness of the service we provide is poor at the moment. When the ED in Dundalk closed people weren’t aware that there is still a minor injury clinic here.

‘When people are referred here they get seen and treated within an hour and a half in most cases and they can’t get over the speed and service and how well they get treated because they weren’t aware of it prior to attending.’

In 2017 the unit saw 8,601 new patients and reviewed 2,482 patients, with a total of 11,183 seen over the course of the year.

Located at the front of the Louth County Hospital, The Dundalk Injury Unit has it’s own separate entrance and is clearly marked so you don’t have to enter through the main hospital.

The cost of attending is €100 for walk in presentations but is free if you have a medical card or a GP referral letter.

For more information on the unit and the services offered see www.hse.ie/eng/services/ list/3/injuryunits