2026-07-01

It is great to have the Minister in the House this morning. I very much welcome the opportunity to have a discussion of a practical nature that will solve this issue and have really positive impacts on patients, staff and the wider health service across the north east. The minor injury unit in Louth County Hospital, Dundalk, is one of the best services in the country. It serves the people of Louth well and we are immensely proud of it and grateful for it. I have spent many a Saturday there when my sons have been injured. We are very grateful that we do not have to go to Drogheda. Day after day, patients receive excellent care from dedicated doctors, nurses, radiographers, administrative staff and support staff. They are professional, effective and really efficient. I want to recognise all of them in this House. The unit's reputation is such that people regularly travel there from well beyond Louth. There were lots of Dublin accents to be heard in the accident and emergency department when I was there last Saturday. They did not even know that Louth was playing on Sunday. It was all about Dublin. People are travelling from north Dublin to County Louth because our minor injuries clinic is so good. As the Minister will know, the unit opens from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. seven days a week. It provides a really vital alternative to a really busy emergency department for patients with fractures, sprains, burns, wounds and other minor injuries. It is exactly the type of service we should continue to invest in. It has the same goal as many of us, which is to deliver the right care in the right place at the right time. There is one significant limitation, however. That is why I am speaking here this morning. It is slowing down or delaying some of the excellent work that is being carried out. At weekends, the X-ray department only operates from 12 noon until 8 p.m. As a result, people who attend in the morning can face unnecessary delays while waiting for imaging. Those delays inevitably increase waiting times, creating frustration, and place additional pressure on staff who are doing everything possible with the resources available to them. This lack of service before 12 noon has a negative knock-on effect. This is not a resourcing issue. I hope it can be looked at and addressed. We all know that weekends are a really busy time for injuries units as a result of sporting events and family activities. Every patient who can successfully be treated in Dundalk is one less patient for another hospital to treat. Extending X-ray availability across the entire opening hours of the minor injuries unit seven days a week would improve patient flow, reduce waiting times, enhance the patient experience and further reduce the pressure on the emergency department in Drogheda. For that reason, I ask the Minister to examine the recruitment of an additional radiographer to allow full radiography cover throughout the unit's opening hours every day of the week. This is not about creating a new service. It is about strengthening and extending a service we already have. Gabhaim buíochas leis an Minister. I hope her response will be positive.

I thank Deputy McGreehan for the opportunity to discuss this very practical issue, which is of huge importance to the people of Louth and wider north-east region. As she stated, minor injury units are a really practical response to an identified need to deal with small injuries away from hospital settings. This is a key part of Sláintecare. As the Deputy also stated, these units are particularly busy at weekends when kids are playing sport and so much activity is taking place. That is even more the case during the summer when people are out and about and getting injured as a result of being involved in sporting or other activities. The development of injury units is a key part of our hospital avoidance strategy. They provide a safe, convenient way for non-life threatening injuries such as broken bones, sprains, burns and all of those things that just happen as part of life to be treated. Crucially, they deliver the same level of care in respect of those conditions as emergency departments, but much closer to home and with much shorter waiting times. We cannot encourage people enough to attend injury units. Nationally, we have seen a great increase in attendances at injury units, reflecting, I hope, the high public confidence and the convenience of local access. Last year, for example, there were 222,000 attendances at injury units. That was a 5% increase over 2024. As the Deputy knows, the minor injury unit at Louth County Hospital in Dundalk provides treatment for patients aged five years and older in respect of suspected fractures, sprains, minor burns, wounds and other injuries that do not require treatment at an emergency department. It is open from 9 a.m. seven days a week, including on bank holidays, with the last patient seen at 8 p.m. It is one of the busiest units in the country. It is the fifth busiest of the 14 units nationally. The most important thing for the Deputy is increasing capacity at the unit at weekends. She is completely right, because that is exactly when it is needed. I have discussed this matter with the HSE and been informed that the minor injury unit has access to two digital X-ray machines, which is fine, and that radiology services are available 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday to Friday. At weekends, however, those services are only available from midday to 8 p.m. The plan is to extend weekend availability. There is a plan to recruit additional resources to do precisely that. I expect that the resources to extend the radiology services to a fully operational model will be put in place during quarter 3 of this year, which is not that far away. I am glad to have this opportunity to discuss the matter with Deputy McGreehan and to outline the very real plan for the extension of this excellent injury unit.

It is very rare one gets a really positive response like that in the House. This is great news for everyone in the entire north east. As I said, the minor injury clinic in Dundalk is an incredible resource for all families and people who live in the area. This is really positive news which shows that the work of the staff in Louth County Hospital in Dundalk has been seen to be successful. The HSE and the Minister are going to invest in that success in order to make sure that the clinic can maintain and expand its excellent services at weekends. I very much appreciate the Minister's work in this area and thank her for it.

I am delighted. I again thank Deputy McGreehan for raising this matter. Deputy Paula Butterly also raised it with me but in a different way. I just want to compliment the region in general and the hospital management in Louth, particularly Priya Madhu, who is the hospital manager there and who has done so much. Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda, which the minor injury unit supports, has done phenomenal work. There are zero people on trolleys there today. For the past ten days, the hospital as been completely within the green threshold in that regard. As a representative for County Louth for so long, the Deputy knows how that was very much not the case a year and a half ago or two years ago and that the emergency department in the hospital was really challenged. There were no people on trolleys in the hospital yesterday. I checked that at 8 a.m. this morning, and it is only just after 9 a.m now. There were also no people on trolleys on Saturday. As indicated, all week long, the hospital has been within the green threshold, which is the accepted safe level. We have given Drogheda hospital additional resources for a virtual ward that has 12 beds. I am pleased to say that Drogheda hospital is using that ward. There were eight people on the virtual ward yesterday. The figure for the ward has been in and around that each day. They could put a few more on because there are 12 beds on the ward. The point is that the hospital is using the resources it has been given intelligently, well and in a way that serves the people Deputy McGreehan represents in County Louth. I am so pleased to champion, highlight and promote what Priya Madhu and her team have done. It is absolutely fantastic. The Deputy is aware what has happened is a turnaround for both the hospital for the people she represents. We are so pleased to be able to do more to support that really excellent level of care. I thank the Deputy for raising this matter.