New Injury Unit being progressed in Carlow

The HSE Dublin and South East plans to have a new Injury Unit in operation in Carlow by the end of this year.

Enabling works are currently under way to facilitate the re-purposing of approximately 265 square metres within the ground floor of the St. Dympna's Hospital building in Carlow. Upon completion of the €1.9 million project, the unit will operate under the auspices of St. Luke’s General Hospital Carlow/Kilkenny and will provide an alternative access for patients for the management of minor injuries, as opposed to attending an Emergency Department.

A complete episode of care for the patient can be provided at the new Carlow Injury Unit and it will be equipped to treat conditions such as:

• broken bones, sprains and strains, from knees to toes, from collarbone to fingertips.
• minor facial injuries (including oral, dental and nasal injuries).
• minor scalds and burns.
• wounds, bites, cuts, grazes and scalp lacerations (cuts).
• small abscesses and boils.
• splinters and fish hooks.
• objects stuck in eyes, ears or nose.
• minor head injuries (fully-conscious patients, who did not have loss of consciousness or vomit after the head injury).

The Injury Unit will be located in what was formerly known as the St. Anne’s Ward and staff training room areas of St. Dympna’s Hospital and which in recent decades had been converted to office accommodation and used as a non-clinical space. The adjacent X Ray outreach facility at St. Dympna’s and serving St. Luke’s General Hospital for Carlow/Kilkenny will remain in place.

The new Injury Unit in Carlow will include a reception and waiting area, two clinical rooms, a clinical multi-bed room, Consultant's office, support spaces and staff facilities.

The enabling works currently under way include facilitating the relocation of office space to the former Sacred Heart Hostel and the training room to the Dolmen Centre, both of which are on the HSE’s St. Dympna’s campus.

St. Dympna’s Hospital, in its function as a mental health inpatient facility ceased taking acute admissions in 2003 and a residential care centre there closed in 2008. The St. Dympna’s building continues to have a variety of uses, including mental health day services and for primary care, environmental health and HSE supplies services.

Other HSE services and facilities on campus in Carlow include the Sacred Heart Hospital residential care centre, Carlow District Hospital, Kelvin Court residences and day centre for Intellectual Disabilities Care service users, Caredoc clinic and administrative centre, Árdú substance misuse support centre, National Ambulance Service station, offices of Tusla and mental health community support residences.

Confirming progress on the Injury Unit project in Carlow, Niamh Lacey (Hospital Manager, St. Luke’s General Hospital for Carlow-Kilkenny) said:

“This is a significant project for HSE Dublin and South East in the Carlow-Kilkenny/Tipperary South Integrated Healthcare Area. We are looking forward to the Carlow Injury Unit being ready later this year and to be in operation into 2027. Staffing arrangements, in terms of the requisite clinical, nursing and administrative supports, are under way and we expect the Unit to initially operate Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm.”

“The treatment of unscheduled, non-life threatening or limb-threatening injuries at the Carlow injury Unit will assist in meeting demands on St. Luke’s General Hospital in Kilkenny. With the Carlow unit in operation, we anticipate faster access to diagnostic and radiography services and improved patient outcomes for people in Carlow and surrounding areas.”