The hospital provides front line emergency service and national/regional medical care at inpatient and outpatient level. It has 479 in-patient beds, incorporating 7-day, 5-day and day care options and its emergency medicine department is one of four principal A&E centres serving the greater Dublin area.

It acts as local, regional and national referral centre for a large number of clinical specialties. St Vincent’s is home to the national centre for liver transplantation and is the national centre for pancreatic cancer surgery. It was one of the first two locations (the other being its sister hospital, Mater Misericordiae University Hospital) for the roll-out of BreastCheck, the national breast cancer screening programme.

In collaboration with the National Cancer Control Programme, the hospital has created a Rapid Access Clinic for patients with a suspected diagnosis of lung cancer, led by Prof Michael Keane, UCD Professor of Medicine & Therapeutics. St Vincent’s University Hospital has internationally renowned expertise in respiratory medicine and hosts a major national care centre for adults with cystic fibrosis. Similarly, the hospital has a strong tradition in rheumatology research and in the care of inflammatory disease.

For many of our medical students, the hospital is a primary location for their clinical education and training in medicine and surgery as well as for medical internships, basic medical and subsequent higher specialist training. Approximately 120 students undertake their primary clinical training at St Vincent's University Hospital, rotating through medical and surgical specialties at the hospital and elsewhere within our clinical training network. 

Incorporating one of Ireland's leading radiology centres, and as one of the first locations for the national Breast Cancer Screening programme, the hospital is also an important clinical training centre for our radiography students. Students typically attend structured clinical training sessions at the hospital during Year 3 and Year 4 of their degree programme.

The hospital is one of two locations of the UCD Clinical Research Centre, Ireland's first academic-led research unit to be approved by the Irish Medicines Board for the conduct of clinical trials and investigator-led investigations.

Staff at the hospital also provide advanced specialist training across a number of programme areas.

As one of Ireland's largest adult acute hospitals, St Vincent's University Hospital provides an extensive range of emergency, acute and chronic care services to South Dublin, South East Leinster and is national referral centre for specialist services.  The hospital has 479 in-patient beds, incorporating 7-day, 5-day and day care. 

The hospital and its staff provide leadership, coordinating the delivery of care across the region in conjunction with affiliate general hospitals, community care facilities and primary care physicians.

Clinical highlights at St Vincent's University Hospital include, but are not limited to:

• First location for National Breast Cancer Screening Service (1980's)
• Centre for Colorectal Disease (1983)
• National Centre for Adult Cystic Fibrosis Care
• National Liver Transplant Centre (1993)
• Triple Assessment Breast Cancer Centre (2003)
• National HSE Award Winners for Healthcare Innovation in Neurology (2008)
• National Centre for Pancreatic Cancer Surgery (2009)
• Rapid Access Lung Cancer Clinic (2009)