Paul Donnelly (Dublin West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I will use this chance to raise the situation of the urgent care centre, that is, the walk-in service at Connolly Hospital and its transition to an appointment-only facility. I know that many parents in Dublin West and the wider community were delighted to hear we had got an urgent care centre in Blanchardstown and a place to which they could drop their child, if the child was ill. There was a huge campaign to try to get the children's hospital into Blanchardstown. This was something to which people looked forward. To be honest, people have been absolutely shocked and dismayed at the ending of the walk-in service. One parent contacted me to ask what an urgent care centre meant to Children's Health Ireland, CHI. What is the definition of an urgent care centre, if it was not the ability to walk in and at least see a triage nurse? No one is expecting to be seen there and then but they are deeply worried about the way it is going, because every parent who contacted me said it was getting next to impossible to get a GP appointment in Dublin West. It is also next to impossible to get an appointment with the other option, D-Doc.

People had the security and knowledge they could drop down to the urgent care centre in Connolly Hospital but, unfortunately, that walk-in service is gone and people have to go online. They have to log in, go through a series of questions which is sort of a self-triage of the child, to determine whether they will get an appointment or if their case will be diverted to Temple Street. We all know that Covid exposed the significant digital divide. Accenture produced a report recently, which said that 39% of people in the lower socioeconomic groups use computers on a daily basis, compared to 61% of those in higher socioeconomic groups.

There is already a wide gap in the provision of healthcare and this will most definitely only contribute to it. There is also a very likely possibility that it will put more pressure on other hospitals, such as Temple Street, which is not too far away from Connolly Hospital, depending on the time. Traffic would determine the length of time one would get in there. It also has the potential to put considerable pressure on to the ambulance service. This needs to be changed. Unfortunately, people were quite dismayed with the Taoiseach. I raised this during questions to the Taoiseach's the other day. The answer was that we should see how it works and if it works, it works and if it does not, it does not. That is not the way we need to be looking at children's services in Connolly Hospital.

This serves a population of well over 350,000 people. It is not just Dublin 15 or Dublin 7. People over in Finglas and in Meath, Louth and Kildare all use the Connolly campus for whatever service they are looking for. A considerable number of people use the campus.

Tallaght children's hospital has a 24-7 emergency department. Not alone have we gone from an urgent care centre - my definition of an urgent care centre was that one goes in there and is treated as urgent - it seems the centre covers much less than people would have assumed and now, because it has gone to appointment only, people will go straight to Temple Street. That will put pressure on Temple Street. It needs to be addressed. I am interested in the Minister of State's reply.

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