Open around the clockEmergency Dept (Type 1)

Royal Children's Hospital

Belfast · data via HSC Northern Ireland · read recently

Time in department now

28 min
Quiet▼ 3 min since last reading

Primary source: HSC Northern Ireland — published waiting times

Royal Children's Hospital exterior

Getting there & getting in touch

Town / postcode
Belfast
Hours
Open 24 hours every day
Run by
HSC Northern Ireland
Service level
Full A&E (Type 1 emergency department)

The last 24 hours at Royal Children's Hospital

Every reading we've collected, newest first. The bar shows each reading relative to the day's peak.

CollectedTrendWaitShiftQueue
recently16:36
28 min▼ 3m—
recently16:10
31 min▲ 9m—
recently15:36
22 min▼ 20m—
recently15:09
42 min▼ 2m—
recently14:36
44 min——
recently14:10
44 min▲ 28m—
recently13:36
16 min——
recently13:10
16 min——
recently12:37
16 min▲ 1m—
recently12:14
15 min▼ 3m—
recently11:35
18 min——
recently11:10
18 min▲ 3m—

How this compares locally

Right now the reading here is 28 min. The Northern Ireland average sits near 1 hr 47 min. This department is currently one of the calmer options in its area.

Not sure A&E is the right door? Read this first →

Quick answers for Royal Children's Hospital

What's the current wait at Royal Children's Hospital?

The latest published reading is about 28 min. That comes straight from the trust's own feed and shifts through the day — and remember triage decides the order patients are seen, so a genuinely urgent case never waits for the whole queue.

Is the A&E at Royal Children's Hospital open right now?

Yes — this A&E never closes. It runs 24 hours a day every day of the year, with no appointment needed; arrivals are triaged and treated in order of clinical urgency.

Would somewhere other than Royal Children's Hospital treat me faster?

Quite possibly, if your problem isn't life-threatening. Urgent treatment centres and minor injuries units around Belfast handle sprains, cuts, minor burns and simple fractures with far shorter queues. The nearby-departments panel on this page shows live figures for the closest options, and 111 can book timed slots at some of them.

Where exactly is Royal Children's Hospital?

It's in Belfast. Pop your own postcode into our distance search to see how far it is from you compared with the other departments nearby.

When does this A&E tend to be calmest?

Across the UK the pattern is consistent: the lightest traffic is between roughly 6am and 9am, and the heaviest crunch lands on Monday mornings, weekday evenings, and Friday and Saturday nights. If your condition can safely wait for a quieter window, an early start usually pays off.

What the labels mean

Quietunder 2 hours
Steady2 to 4 hours
Busyover 4 hours

Don't wait on a webpage

If someone is seriously unwell — chest pain, stroke signs, heavy bleeding, struggling to breathe — call 999 immediately instead of comparing queues.