The Injury unit at St John’s hospital in Limerick is to have longer opening hours. The Injury Unit is now open from 8am to 8pm, seven days a week. This is in line with the opening hours of the region’s other Injury Units at Ennis and Nenagh.
Cashel Injury unit remains a Monday to Friday service from 9 to 5pm.
St John’s is the busiest of the three Injury Units in HSE Mid West, with 17,583 patients having attended in 2023. Activity at the Injury Unit is up by a further 13% so far this year.
Injury Units treat minor and non-life threatening injuries that are unlikely to need a hospital stay. Patients aged five years and older are accepted at the Injury unit for injuries such as broken bones, sprains and strains, dislocations, minor burns and wounds requiring stitches.Patients do not need an appointment and the service is free to people referred there by a GP and to medical card holders. People with injuries that are life-threatening, particularly anything to do with the back, chest, neck or head, should still go to the Emergency Department at UHL for treatment. The Injury Units are intended to provide prompt care and to help alleviate delays and overcrowding at the Emergency Department in UHL and Tipperary University Hospital in Clonmel.
