The first part of the new National Children's Hospital project is opening in Dublin.

The new paediatric outpatient and urgent care centre at Children's Health Ireland (CHI) at Connolly Hospital in Blanchardstown will see patients from Wednesday.

The new facility will offer services to children, young people and their families in the local area - as well as those in Dublin north city and county and surrounding areas in Kildare and Meath.

The opening is seen as a major milestone in the new Children's Hospital project.

The new paediatric outpatient and urgent care centre at Connolly Hospital | Image: Roughan & O’Donovan

The building was handed over in May by the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (NPHDB) to CHI.

A range of services will be provided - including urgent care for the treatment of minor injury and illness that is not life threatening and does not require a visit to the emergency department.

Children with minor injuries such as fractures, sprains, minor burns, small cuts - and illnesses such as vomiting, diarrhoea and mild asthma - should all come to the new centre.

Restricted opening hours

The urgent care centre is a walk-in service with no appointment necessary.

However its opening hours will only be from 10.00am to 5.00pm Monday to Friday.

The hospital says this is for a "phased basis" as it continues to recruit and monitor staffing levels.

It says: "Hours of opening will be increased as ongoing recruitment is successful and in response to the monitoring of processes.

"There are recruitment challenges nationally in certain specialities, such as paediatric radiology and paediatric emergency medicine.

"While our recruitment campaign for emergency medicine has been successful there are temporary vacancies in CHI due to maternity and backfill requirements for paediatric emergency medicine posts".

When fully operational, it is expected to provide 17,000 outpatient appointments every year.

Currently there are just over 5,000 children on waiting lists for general paediatric outpatient appointments in CHI.

It is expected that it will see 500 patients during August as a result of the additional capacity.

Health Minister Simon Harris says: "After generations of debate it is great to see we are making progress with the opening of this incredible new facility in Blanchardstown.

"This is the first phase of the new National Children's Hospital.

"From today, children and their parents will be available of this state-of-the-art facility.

"We are transforming paediatric healthcare in this country and today is the first major step on that journey."