UCC dental school opens emergency service

The College of Medicine and Health at University College Cork today announced that the Dental School and Hospital has reorganised in order to free up space for the HSE to relocate a number of outpatient services during the COVID-19 crisis.

The Dental School and Hospital has amalgamated its clinics to one clinical area, to run an emergency service for dental patients.

This clinic operates Monday to Friday from 9.00am to 1.00pm, all patients are triaged over the phone and appointments are issued where necessary. Where appropriate, clinicians are using Telemedicine over a secure platform to do video consultations with patients to identify and advise on treatment options. This is a new venture for the Dental School and Hospital but is a vital resource in managing urgent care during the public health crisis.

In March, when the first positive case of COVID-19 was confirmed, things changed fundamentally for all staff and patients on the CUH campus. Outpatient clinics in CUH had to be relocated and reinstated as soon as possible.

Dr Christine McCreary Dean, University Dental School and Hospital, Cork today said:

‘’Given the current COVID-19 crisis we felt it was imperative to assist the HSE and reorganise our services at The Dental School and Hospital and combine our clinics to one clinical area thereby running an emergency service for dental patients during the COVID-19 crisis.’’

The amalgamation of the dental specialities in one area has released much-needed space to the HSE to get their outpatient clinics back in operation. The following clinics have now been relocated to the Dental School and Hospital and are up and running: Dressing Clinic, Warfarin Clinic, Podiatry, Phlebotomy, Rheumatology, Neurology, Neurosurgery, Plastics, General Surgery, Urology, Infectious Diseases, Plastics, Diabetes and ENT.