About 6,000 patients are expected to attend for endoscopy treatment this year at the new purpose built unit opened at Beaumont hospital in Dublin last night.after referral by a GP.
The procedures take 10 minutes to an hour and patients will usually be treated as out patients.
"State of the art" facilities at the unit include video endoscopy equipment. These procedures allow doctors to view the abnormality on video screen and to print out the results on, photographs.