GP Referrals
Accessing our outpatient clinics
To obtain an appointment within the St. Vincent’s University Hospital outpatient service, a patient must first have a referral from one of the following sources of referral.
- General practitioner (GP)
- Emergency Department
- Consultant to consultant
- Inpatient referrals originating from an admission
- Other hospitals or health centres
- National specialist clinics including National Cancer Control Programme (NCCP) and liver services
How are referrals submitted?
GP Referrals can be submitted to the department in person, by post, by fax or electronically via Healthlink.
Post:
Central Referrals Office
Ambulatory Day Care Centre (ADCC)
St. Vincent’s University Hospital
Elm Park
Dublin 4
Electronically: via Healthlink
Fax: (01) 221 3660
By hand: any of the reception areas in the ADCC Department at St. Vincent’s University Hospital
Please note that all GP referrals can now go through Healthlink.
St. Vincent’s University Hospital continues to develop and maintain a strong working relationship with GPs to ensure we can provide all our patients with the most timely, efficient, relevant and best possible care.
SVUH have set up secure email address for GP use via Healthmail in the following areas:
- Lab Results LabResultEnquiry@svhg.ie
- Radiology Results GPradiologyresults@svhg.ie
- Emergency Department ed@svhg.ie
- Patient Outpatient Letters gpletterenquiry@svhg.ie
- Labs and radiology emails:
- Purpose: Intended for requesting non-urgent results or copies of patient scans on disc.
- Not intended for: Referrals.
- Note: Results can be shared only with the patient’s registered GP or a GP working in the same practice.
- Emergency Department email:
- Purpose: For sending additional patient notes when a patient is already en route to SVUH ED from the GP practice.
- Outpatient Letters email:
- Purpose: Specifically for requesting correspondence from outpatient clinics.
- Future updates:
- Additional addresses for wards and departments will be set up over time, and details will be shared on the website as they become available for use.
Discharge:
If you have a query about a discharge summary, please email dischargecoordinator@svuh.ie
EDITH (Emergency Department in the Home)
EDITH is a frailty response service, providing emergency medical and occupational therapy input to adults aged 65 and over in the SVUH catchment area seven days a week (8am – 6pm) who have been referred to the service by GP, Emergency Services or nursing home. The at-home service includes a full medical and targeted functional assessment by a doctor and occupational therapist including mobile ECGs and bloods. EDITH was established to provide a patient-centred approach to ED care, with the aim also of reducing unnecessary ED attendances. This allows ED resources to be redistributed and to release bed days back into the SVUH healthcare system.
EDITH accepts referrals from local GPs and other community-based HCPs through a geriatrician hotline. Referrals are also accepted from Nursing Homes, the National Ambulance Service (NAS), and from our ED team. Referrals received can be related, but not limited to, falls, delirium, wound reviews, pain management, infections, functional decline or catheter-related issues. All accepted patients receive a once-off visit, however many patients will then be referred or sign-posted to relevant community services.
GP Referral details (calls will be triaged):
Geriatrician hot line: 087 6391954.
Urgent referrals: Please call 087 407 3749 for urgent cases. Please avoid sharing this number with patients or relatives to ensure effective triaging.
Non-urgent referrals: Please send non-urgent referrals via email to EDITH@svhg.ie
Appointment enquiries: For appointment checks, GPs, patients, or relatives can contact Daphnie Layugan, GP Liaison Nurse, ED directly.
St. Columcille’s Hospital Injuries Unit
Injury Units specialise in addressing minor injuries that are not expected to require hospital admission.
For those with a full medical card or a GP referral letter, there is no charge for the services provided at Injury Units. However, if a patient doesn’t fall into these categories, the cost for attending an Injury Unit is €75.
Address: St. Columcille’s Hospital, Loughlinstown, Co. Dublin
Opening hours: Monday to Sunday 08.00 – 18.00hrs
Suitable for the following patients:
– Aged 14 years and up
– Suspected broken bones to legs, from knees to toes
– Suspected broken bones to arms, from collarbone (clavicle) to fingertips
– All sprains and strains
– Minor facial injuries (including oral, dental and nasal injuries)
– Minor scalds and burns
– Wounds, bites, cuts, grazes and scalp lacerations
– Small abscesses and boils
– Splinters and fish hooks
– Foreign bodies in eyes/ears/nose
– Minor head injury (fully-conscious patients, who did not experience loss of consciousness or have more than one episode of vomiting after the head injury)
Haematology Department Referral Guidance/Timelines
The Department of Clinical Haematology provides care for patients with general and malignant haematological disorders including leukaemia, myeloma and lymphoma, as well as patients undergoing autologous stem cell harvesting and transplantation.
Referral guidelines: SVUH Haematology Department – Referral Guidance Document – October 2023
Headache Clinic
Telephone Headache Clinic – Runs every Thursday from 13:00hrs – 15:30hrs
Contact: Vanessa Lefort, Headache CNS
tel: 01 221 5670
email: headacheclinic@svhg.ie
What happens following the receipt of your referral?
Upon receiving your referral, our consultant team assess it, assigning a priority based on clinical need. Subsequently, an appointment date is allocated, taking into account this priority. Please be aware that waiting times can fluctuate depending on the specialty in question.
For urgent priority referrals:
– An appointment date is promptly issued.
– A letter confirming the date, time, and location of the scheduled appointment is sent to both the patient and the GP.
For routine priority referrals:
– The patient and GP are informed of the routine priority.
– An estimated waiting time for the required specialty is provided.
– Confirmed appointment dates are issued 6-8 weeks in advance of the scheduled date.