The Emergency Department at Mayo University Hospital is extremely busy today

The Emergency Department at Mayo University Hospital is extremely busy today, Monday 30 December. The hospital has admitted a lot of seriously ill patients over the last three days; some patients from yesterday remain in the Emergency Department (ED) awaiting an inpatient bed.

We apologise for the distress and discomfort caused to patients and their families who experienced long wait times in ED. We are working very closely with our community colleagues to ensure all patients who can be safely cared for in non-acute hospital settings are considered for discharge there.

We are committed to treating everyone who presents at our ED but we do so strictly in order of medical priority. We would like to remind the public that we encourage them to attend the Emergency Department only in the case of real emergencies.

For minor injuries, which are non-life or non-limb threatening, the Injury Unit at Roscommon University Hospital is open from 8am to 8pm, 365 days per year. The Injury Unit is located within the Urgent Care Centre at Roscommon University Hospital and is staffed by Doctors, Advanced Nurse Practitioners and Nurses. If you have a full medical card or valid medical/GP referral letter there is no charge for attending an Injury Unit. For non-medical card holders the fee is now €75, compared with €100 for attending an Emergency Department. The average turnaround time for seeing and treating patients at Roscommon Injury Unit is less than 60 minutes. If you are looking for advice on your injury and want to know if you should attend the Roscommon Injury Unit, you can call 090 663 2212.

We would like to thank our staff who are working extremely hard at this time dealing with the high volumes of patients.