Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. At the discretion of the Chair, I thank her for the warm welcome to Carlow last Friday. It was wonderful to be there. As a segue, I met former Deputy Charlie O'Connor yesterday and I told him that the Deputy had assumed the mantle of Jennifer "Carlowman" O'Connor. He was happy to see that his moniker lives on.

The National Emergency Medicine Programme, EMP, model of care recognises the need to support the development of injury units. These units provide care locally in cases where injuries are unlikely to require hospital admission. I am pleased to say that 13 local injury units are open around the country, each one providing an important service to their local communities. These units are designed to provide the same level of care for certain conditions as would be available at an emergency department, but more locally and with a shorter waiting time. This care includes direct referral to specialties such as orthopaedics, plastic surgery or maxillofacial surgery, in the small number of cases in which this is indicated. As a result, these units also play an important role in reducing the waiting times for patients in emergency departments throughout the country. The services provided at injury units are held in high esteem by patients. This is evident by the large and growing demand for these services. Approximately 140,000 patients attended injury units in 2022, an increase of 30% since 2019. This represents approximately 7% of all urgent and emergency activity in Ireland. I can advise that the HSE has carried out a review of injury units, which was completed in July 2023. The review considered the activity, operations and governance of 13 injury units across the country. These recommendations of the review are broadly based on three themes. These are the need to standardise existing services; consistency of operating hours across established units; and to identify options for future development of injury units in the medium to long term. I believe this is where a case for Carlow may come in. All recommendations will of course also be subject to resource and other considerations and will be delivered through the Urgent and Emergency Care Plan, UEC, for 2024, and successor plans as appropriate.

I think we are at the stage where the assessment has been carried out and the review completed. It is going through the process, but now is the time where local advocates such as the Deputy will continue to push the case for an injury unit in their particular region, or indeed another region as they see fit. I undertake to bring the points made by the Deputy this evening to the Minister, Deputy Donnelly, and his colleagues in the HSE. I would be more than happy to support the efforts to secure that unit for Carlow.

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