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 to Outpatients submitted?
Electronically: via Healthlink
Please note that all GP referrals for Outpatients now go through Healthlink. We are no longer in a position to accept paper or faxed referrals. Please view the official letter about the transition to electronic referrals (PDF) for full details.
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.
Gynaecology referrals
All benign gynaecology referrals should be directed to the National Maternity Hospital (NMH). Further information, including referral process and guidance, is available on the NMH website
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.