Patients with minor injuries who present at Mullingar hospital ED from next week are likely to be referred to a new unit at Ballinderry hospital.
A new Minor Injuries Unit will open next Monday the 7th of November at the Charter Medical Private Hospital.
It will be a walk-in service similar to the Emergency Department at the hospital, but the waiting times should be significantly shortened to an average of less than 2 hours.
Kay Slevin who's manager at the Regional Hospital says while the new unit is being opened initially on the Ballinderry hospital site, things will be kept constantly under review for the next months.
''If we were to set up a minor injury unit here at the moment, we would actually have to move out other services that are here on site in the hospital. And we're very confident that this will have a positive impact on our Emergency Department and the services in the hospital. It is a proof of concept or a pilot for the initial period. We will be monitoring the progress and you know, we'd have our performance indicators in place for this and we'll be monitoring on a weekly to monthly basis.''
