Health service staff will continue to provide essential services to people who need hospitals, ambulances and emergency placements throughout the festive period, the Health Service Executive has said. Eithne Donnellan,Health Correspondent, reports.
Hospitals will be functioning as usual on a 24-hour basis and GP services will also operate.
"However you should only come to hospital or contact a GP out of hours service if you have a genuine illness or emergency," the HSE stressed.
The national ambulance service expects to deal with about 8,000 calls between Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve. Of those, around 6,500 will be from individuals with emergencies, and around 1,500 will be from GPs seeking to have patients taken to hospital.
A full complement of ambulance personnel will work over coming days but there will be extra ambulance staff on duty on New Year's Eve.
Frank McClintock, head of the HSE's ambulance service, urged people to take care on the roads and to be sensible and responsible over the holiday season.
Meanwhile the HSE, in a general safety message, urged people to ensure their smoke alarms are in working order. "Do not remove batteries for toys. A disappointed child is no comparison to an injured or dead child," it said.
Anyone on prescription drugs should ensure they have an adequate supply for over the festive season, it added.
And it advises that people should always wash their hands before handling food and if reheating food they should make sure the food is piping hot.
The HSE's winter information line on 1850 241850, which operates on a 24-hour basis over the winter, will close on December 24th, 25th and 26th. It will reopen on December 27th until December 30th and will close on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day.
Meanwhile for those who require a GP over the festive season there are now out of hours GP co-ops in most areas.
In the west, West Doc can be reached on 1850-365000, in the midwest Shannon Doc can be contacted on 1850-212999, in the south South Doc GP Co-op is contactable on 1850-335999, in the southeast (including Wicklow) Care Doc can be contacted on 1850-334999, in north Dublin D-DOC can be reached on 1850-224477 while other GP co-ops in Dublin include Dub Doc on 01-4545607, DL Doc on 01-6639869 and Luke Doc on 01-406 5158.
Other GP co-ops include K Doc in Kildare which can be reached at 1890 599362, MIDoc in the midlands is contactable on 1850-302702, NE Doc in the northeast is contactable on 1850-777911 and Now Doc, which covers Leitrim, north Roscommon and Donegal, can be reached at 1850-400911.