Urgent Care Near Me in Ireland: Locations & When to Go

You’ve just rolled your ankle on the stairs, and it’s already beginning to swell. You know you don’t need an ambulance, but you’re not sure whether to wait three days for a GP appointment, head to A&E, or find something in between. Ireland’s urgent care landscape is narrower than many people expect — the concept of a walk-in urgent care clinic as you’d find in the United States doesn’t quite exist here in the same form. The good news is that several public injury units and private alternatives can handle exactly these situations, often with waits under an hour. This guide maps out what each service actually treats, who can use it, and how much it costs.

Primary Finder: HSE.ie urgent/emergency search · Out-of-Hours Service: Caredoc after GP hours · Vhi Locations: Carrickmines, Swords, Cork · Nedoc Hours: 6PM-8AM Mon-Fri · Laya Helpline: 0818 933 030

Use the table below to identify the right service contact for your situation — from the national HSE finder to regional out-of-hours GP and insurance helplines.

What is considered urgent but not an emergency?

Ireland’s health system draws a fairly clear line between emergencies and everything else. A condition that threatens your life goes to A&E or calls 112 or 999. Everything else — the sprained wrist, the suspicious bruise, the cough that’s lingered a week too long — lands in a grey zone that the HSE tries to sort through its Find Urgent and Emergency Care tool on HSE.ie. The tool lists three broad categories: emergency departments, injury units, and GP out-of-hours services. Each serves a different band of urgency.

What is classed as medically urgent?

Medically urgent conditions include soft tissue injuries like sprains and strains, suspected fractures that don’t involve the pelvis or spine, minor burns and scalds, wound care for injuries under six weeks old, and animal bites. The HSE defines these as conditions unlikely to require a hospital admission — you need treatment, but you’re not in a life-threatening situation. What injury units explicitly do not handle: chest or abdomen injuries, serious head or spinal injuries, poisoning, or any medical condition that isn’t an injury. For anything involving internal organs or serious trauma, the emergency department is the only appropriate route.

When should I take my child to urgent care for a cough?

Coughs in children sit right in the grey zone. Most viral coughs resolve within a week to ten days with rest and fluids. But certain signs mean you should seek care: difficulty breathing visible through chest retractions, a cough that has lasted more than three weeks, a fever above 38.5°C that doesn’t respond to paracetamol, coughing up blood, or a child who seems unusually lethargic or confused. For these situations, the first call should be to your GP or GP out-of-hours service. Children’s Health Ireland (CHI) operates an urgent care clinic at Connolly Hospital in Blanchardstown for children’s minor injuries and illnesses — though it requires an appointment, unlike walk-in injury units.

How to tell if a child’s cough is serious?

Watch for three danger signals: the child is working harder to breathe (you can see the ribs or the space between the ribs pulling in), the cough sounds barking like a seal (croup), or the child under one year has stopped feeding. A whooping sound after a cough in an unvaccinated child warrants immediate attention for possible pertussis. The CHI Connolly Urgent Care clinic sees children with minor injuries and illnesses by appointment from 9am to 5pm daily, including holidays, making it one of the more reliable pediatric options in the Dublin area.

When to take a child to A&E with a cough?

If the child is severely dehydrated, has a fever that won’t come down despite medication, has lips or tongue that are turning blue, or shows signs of severe respiratory distress, go directly to A&E or call 112. Children under three months with a fever above 38°C generally warrant A&E evaluation unless your GP has specifically advised otherwise. For anything between a mild cough and a full respiratory emergency, the CHI Connolly appointment system or your GP out-of-hours service (like Caredoc outside regular hours) offers a middle ground that won’t leave you waiting six hours in an emergency department unnecessarily.

Does urgent care exist in Ireland?

The short answer is yes, but not exactly in the American sense. Ireland has HSE injury units — public facilities that treat non-life-threatening injuries without requiring an emergency department visit. The HSE operates a network of injury units across the country, and these are the closest thing to an urgent care clinic that most of Ireland has access to. Private providers like Laya Healthcare and Irish Life Health also operate walk-in clinics that treat both injuries and minor illnesses, though these are insurance-dependent or fee-based.

Urgent Care by appointment Children’s Health Ireland

CHI Connolly in Blanchardstown is perhaps the most direct analogue to an urgent care model in Ireland. It handles children’s minor injuries and illnesses by appointment, operating from 9am to 5pm daily including public holidays. Unlike HSE injury units that accept walk-ins, CHI Connolly requires you to book in advance. The appointment system helps manage patient flow and keeps waits predictable — children are typically seen within the hour according to the clinic’s operational model. For parents in the greater Dublin area, this is a valuable option that sits between a GP visit and a hospital emergency department.

Should I go to urgent care for a bruise?

Most bruises heal on their own within two weeks and don’t require any medical attention. However, certain bruises warrant a visit to an injury unit or GP: bruises that are unusually large given the cause of injury, bruises that appear on the head (especially in children or elderly patients), bruises that are still tender and swollen after several days, bruises that come with a suspected fracture underneath, or bruises that appear without any known cause. If you can see and feel a dent or step-off in the bone where the bruise is, that’s a strong indicator of a fracture that needs x-ray evaluation.

Do bruises swell when to visit

Swelling that accompanies a bruise is your body’s inflammatory response — it’s normal in the first 48 to 72 hours. Applying ice, elevating the affected area, and resting it are the standard first steps. However, if the swelling is worsening after 72 hours, if the bruise covers a very large area, or if the bruise sits over a joint and is limiting your range of motion, an injury unit visit is appropriate. An x-ray at a HSE injury unit costs €75 (free with a medical card, GP referral, or ED referral), and the staff can determine whether there’s an underlying fracture that the bruising was masking.

You do not need an appointment to attend an injury unit. You can get treatment such as x-rays, plaster casts, and wound care in an injury unit.

— HSE injury unit finder

Is it free to go to urgent care in Ireland as an EU citizen?

For EU citizens with a valid European Health Insurance Card (EHIC), public healthcare in Ireland is covered under the EU cross-border healthcare directive, meaning you can access HSE injury units and emergency departments at the same cost as an Irish resident. Medical card holders, GP referral holders, and those referred from an emergency department pay nothing. Everyone else pays the standard €75 fee at HSE injury units. Non-EU visitors face higher fees: Roscommon University Hospital, for example, charges €200 for non-EU short-term visitors at its injury unit.

Private clinics like Laya and Irish Life ExpressCare operate outside the public system. Their pricing varies, and whether your private health insurance covers the visit depends on your policy. Irish Life Health members have access to 21 ExpressCare clinics across Ireland through their insurance plan, while Laya Healthcare operates clinics on a fee basis that may be partially covered depending on your policy with them. Laya’s helpline (0818 933 030) can confirm costs before your visit, which is worth doing if you’re paying out of pocket.

The implication: most people in Ireland can access urgent care at a HSE injury unit for €75, and EU citizens with an EHIC pay the same as Irish residents. Private options offer extended hours and treat minor illnesses that injury units won’t touch, but the cost advantage disappears if you’re paying without insurance coverage.

How do the services compare?

Three tiers of urgent care service operate in Ireland, and the differences matter more than the names suggest.

Four service types, three fundamentally different cost structures: the HSE public system charges €75 per visit but is free with a medical card or referral, private insurers cover their members at their own clinic networks, and the pediatric-specific CHI Connolly operates within the public system at no charge for children. The critical difference between HSE injury units and private alternatives is that HSE units do not treat minor illnesses — a fever, an ear infection, or a urinary complaint requires a GP or GP out-of-hours service, not an injury unit.

What the data shows

The Roscommon University Hospital Injury Unit, operated by Saolta University Health Care Group, publishes its performance data and is one of the most transparent injury units in the country. The average turnaround time for seeing and treating patients is under 60 minutes, and the unit operates 8am–8pm 365 days per year with a minimum age of 5. The Mater Smithfield Rapid Injury Clinic in Dublin, by contrast, operates only Monday through Thursday 8am–5:30pm and is closed Friday through Sunday, with a higher age threshold of 16 and above. The contrast between regional units like Roscommon and Dublin’s main city unit illustrates an uneven pattern: outside the capital, injury units tend to offer longer hours and lower age limits, while Dublin’s options are more limited in their operating days.

What this means for someone searching for urgent care near them in Ireland: the answer depends heavily on where you are, what time it is, and whether your condition is an injury or an illness. A sprained ankle at 9pm on a Saturday in Cork can go to the Mercy Injury Unit (open 8am–8pm daily) or a private Laya clinic (open 10am–10pm). The same injury at 9pm in Dublin on a Friday has fewer options — the private clinics or an A&E, because the Mater Smithfield is closed.

We aim to see patients within 1 hour, with no appointment needed, and are here for you 7 days a week.

— Irish Life Health ExpressCare clinic finder

Come to our state-of-the-art Consultant-led clinics for the urgent care you need. Don’t wait hours at a hospital A&E.

— Laya Healthcare walk-in clinic information

The pattern: public HSE injury units are cheaper and more clinically focused on injuries alone, but have limited hours in Dublin and don’t treat illness. Private clinics charge more (or require insurance) but offer extended hours, treat minor illnesses, and in the case of Laya, are consultant-led. Children’s care has its own dedicated pathway through CHI Connolly, which operates by appointment within the public system.

Summary

Finding urgent care near you in Ireland requires knowing which service applies to your situation before you need it. HSE injury units handle injuries efficiently at €75 per visit (often free), private clinics like Laya and Irish Life ExpressCare extend hours and treat minor illnesses too, and pediatric cases have a dedicated appointment-based pathway through CHI Connolly. The HSE’s Find Urgent and Emergency Care tool is the best starting point for locating your nearest appropriate service. For anyone who needs to make a decision in the next hour, the immediate step is clear: if it’s an injury, use the HSE finder or call your nearest injury unit directly to confirm they’re open. If it’s a minor illness outside GP hours, call Caredoc or your insurance helpline — not an injury unit. And if it’s life-threatening, call 112 or 999 without hesitation.

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While exploring HSE and Caredoc options, this matching guide details similar locations and when to seek urgent care over A&E.

Frequently asked questions