Covid Booster Vaccines

We have one last clinic scheduled to finish our booster vaccines for our patients aged 80 and over. Please make contact with us if you fall into this category and have not received an appointment.

Children’s Flu Vaccine (nasal)

Due to the low uptake of this vaccine in 2020 our first order received is for 100 vaccines. We are scheduling a designated clinic in November and will be in contact shortly for those who have dropped back the consent forms. Should you wish your child to be vaccinated please complete and return the consent form below and we will do our best to facilitate you.

Childrens-Flu-Vaccine-campaign-2021-Consent-Form.docx

New Prescription Policy

There will a significant change to how you order your prescription from now on. Please see our previous post for all the details however as always we will update this page in due course.

Under 6 children and plan for Winter 2021

We are heading into another Autumn/Winter with our Under 6 contract. Based on this year so far, we envisage the demand to be even greater than previous years.

Our previous experience has shown more often than not that these appointments are made too early and will require a 2nd appointment for review.

This has led to unsustainable pressure for GP appointments, our office continually working off daily cancellation lists, and always try to prioritise those as directed by the GP that need the appointments the most.

We will no longer be working off cancellation lists.

We will have daily designated emergency appointments allocated to facilitate our Under 6 children however as they are not limitless and the demand every growing we need your understanding and co-operation

These appointments are deemed “emergency” appointments meaning the GP can and will only deal with the one presenting issue.

Please respect the nature of these appointments as they are designed to enable us to see your child in a quick and safe environment.

Routine appointments can be made and booked in advance.

And finally, while we would like to thank you for your support and understanding during this very busy period, it is with regret that we have to say, although in the minority, we are experiencing unacceptable demands and behaviour from some of our patients.

Abusive and excessively demanding behaviour towards our staff is not acceptable, it will never be tolerated in this surgery and if directed at any staff member, a change of practice will be required.

Thank you in advance of your co-operation.

We will be closed on Monday 25th October for the Bank Holiday and will re-open on Tuesday 26th October

Should you need medical assistance please contact our out of hours provider

NORTHDOC on 1850 22 44 77

We will be running our annual flu vaccine campaign as usual this year.  There are 3 types of Flu vaccines this year and the vaccine type given to patients is dependent on the criteria as advised by the HSE. There is no flexibility at this time to offer the Flu Vaccine to patients who fall outside this criteria. Please see HSE list below.

To ensure the smooth running of these clinics we will be scheduling them as individual clinics and by vaccine type.

Covid Booster & Flu (+80’s)

This age group will receive their Covid Booster vaccine PLUS flu vaccine.  The booster vaccine is Pzifer.  You must be +80 years of age on the day of vaccination and six months since your last Covid vaccine.

Please contact us if you have not received an appointment from us for this.

Fluad Tetra (+ 65 years)

This adjuvanted quadrivalent Influenza vaccine (aQIV) is a non-live influenza vaccine. It is licensed for use in people aged 65 years and over only and is the recommended vaccine for this age group.  

Quadrivalent Influenza Vaccine (QIV)  (Regular flu vaccine)

Recommended for children aged 6 months to 23 months and adults aged 18 to 64 years with chronic medical conditions, pregnant women, healthcare workers (including general practice staff and students) and carers. 

Children’s Flu Vaccine – Fluenz Tetra (Nasal vaccine)

A live attenuated influenza vaccine (LAIV). This is given intranasally and recommended for all children aged 2 to 17 years at the time of vaccination.  Due to the lack of uptake last year, we have ordered 100 vaccines only. Please fill out the consent form below, return to the surgery and we will contact you in due course.

HSE list of chronic long term medical conditions are:

• Chronic heart disease
• Chronic liver disease
• Chronic renal failure
• Chronic respiratory disease – including (COPD), Cystic Fibrosis, Moderate/Severe asthma or Bronchopulmonary dysplasia
• Chronic neurological disease including multiple sclerosis, hereditary and degenerative disorders of the central nervous system.
• Diabetes mellitus
• Haemoglobinopathies
• Morbid obesity – (BMI over 40)
• Immunosuppression due to disease or treatment (including treatment for cancer)
• Children with moderate to severe neurodevelopmental disorder such as cerebral palsy.
• Were born with Down Syndrome
• Live in a nursing home or other care facility.

We are working towards a new and more efficient way or ordering your repeat prescription.

Currently this is done over the phone which is extremely time consuming for both patient and practice staff along with the added frustration of trying to get through to already very busy phone lines.

We expect this whole process will take at least 12 months to complete, the initial phase will commence on November 1st 2021, and we expect we will make improvements/ changes along the way and as always value your cooperation.

It is best practice that every patient is seen by their GP on an annual basis.

The aims of our new repeat prescription policy are
• To maximise accurate prescribing of all medication
• To maximise patient safety
• To enable all patients to be fully aware of all medications they have been prescribed
• To prescribe as cost effectively as possible
• To minimise human error.
• To minimise waste of medications

We are working towards all repeat prescription requests being written by the patient themselves. The request form can be downloaded from our website in the forms and links section of the
website or requested at the front desk of the surgery.

From 1/11/21, we will not be accepting telephone requests for repeat prescriptions

From 1/11/21, it will take 72 hours from receipt of a fully filled out repeat prescription form, to the processing of this form and to email your script to your pharmacy of choice. (Please note, you must still let your pharmacy know when you would like your prescription dispensed)

From 1/1/22, it will cost 20 euros for all repeat prescriptions other than patients will full medical cards.

Your script will be reviewed by your regular GP.

Preparing a prescription takes considerable time. The GP needs to review your chart to ensure that your medication requested is medically appropriate & prescribed as safely/accurately as possible.

We ask that you request all your medication at once for the whole six month duration of your script, multiple requests within this six month span may be refused and if processed will be charged for each request, full medical card holders exempt.

We are delighted to announce this very welcomed new specialised clinic in this practice.

It will initially be run one afternoon per month, the first of which is Wednesday 29^th September.  It is a designed for women who would like advice and care regarding Menopause/Peri Menopause and post Menopause. 

It will be GP led by Dr Myra Lynch and Dr Orla McCormack who are both members of the British Menopause Society and the International Menopause Society.

It will initially be run one clinic one afternoon per month, the first of which is

Wednesday 29^th September 2021

With Dr Myra Lynch

The clinic will be booked in advance and a deposit of 50 euro will be required on booking.

First/Initial Consultation:             120 euros            Half Hour Appointment

Bloods if required:                         40 euros          Carried out by our practice nurse

                                                                                  (during normal surgery hours)

Review appointment:                      80 euros            20 min Appointment ( 3 months after)

To make an appointment please call the surgery on 01 8203303 and ask for Kim who will be looking after these bookings.

Please note, to ensure this clinic is run successfully and effectively, only medical issues relating to Menopause can be dealt with, all other medical issues must to dealt with in our normal surgeries.

Free Under 6 GP care to new born babies

All children under 6 years of age living in Ireland can get a GP visit card. Some parents/guardians of new born babies are unfamiliar with this contract and/or do not know how to register for this card.

For parents and guardians of new born babies, it is vital you register your child for their under 6 GP card as soon as you can. It is not possible to see children free of charge without the appropriate GMS Under 6 card.

For details on how to register please visit the HSE website as below or visit our page “under six contract” on our website.

https://www2.hse.ie/services/gp-visit-cards/under-6s-gp-visit-card.html

Blood tests

All blood tests carried out in this surgery must be GP led or in some cases Consultant led. It is not possible for our Practice Nurse to add on any additional tests requested by a patient. These requests have become more frequent lately and we would ask for your co-operation with this.

Consultant led blood tests – The list must be dropped in to the surgery and reviewed prior to your appointment being made. GP bloods are currently being outsourced from our local lab, we need to ensure the requested tests can be carried out before we make your appointment.

Appointments

Our summer scheduling of appointments is now coming to an end, we are reviewing our Autumn plan and will have an update very soon. Thank you all for your co-operation, our appointments were managed very well as a result of it.

Flu vaccines

We have no news regarding this years Flu season but will have a plan in place as soon as we do.

We will continue with our short term change to our appointment system for next week.  Morning appointments can be booked in advance however all afternoon appointments will be same day.  We will be medically triaging these afternoon appointments.

What does this mean?

This means you can still plan and book a routine appointment in advance.  It also means we can hopefully facilitate a same day appointment for medically urgent patients who need to be seen and cannot wait for a routine appointment.  It is most likely you will not get a choice of GP and only the one urgent issue can be dealt with.

As always we appreciate your co-operation and understanding

Covid 19

If you have any symptoms of Covid 19 please do not come to the surgery, call us instead on 01 8203303. For the most up to date information on Covid 19 please visit the HSE website

The surgery will be closed Monday 2nd August due to the bank holiday and will reopen Tuesday 4th August. Should you need medical assistance please contact NORTHDOC on 1850 22 44 77

Summer changes 2021

Appointments

Demand has increased hugely again and our appointments are limited. We envisage appointment availability will be an issue this summer.  We have always worked off a daily cancellation list however with the demand growing for appointments this list is also growing.

To ensure we see the most urgent patients when needed we are going to implement the following short- term change to our appointment system.

From 19^th July until 30^th August we will have a short term change to our appointment system.  Morning appointments can be booked in advance however all afternoon appointments will be same day.  We will be medically triaging these afternoon appointments.

What does this mean?

This means you can still plan and book a routine appointment in advance.  It also means we can hopefully facilitate a same day appointment for medically urgent patients who need to be seen and cannot wait for a routine appointment.  It is most likely you will not get a choice of GP and only the one urgent issue can be dealt with.

As always we appreciate your co-operation and understanding

Covid 19

If you have any symptoms of Covid 19 please do not come to the surgery, call us instead on 01 8203303. For the most up to date information on Covid 19 please visit the HSE website

https://www2.hse.ie/conditions/covid19

Appointments

Demand has increased hugely again and our appointments are limited. We envisage appointment availability will be an issue this summer.  We have always worked off a daily cancellation list however with the demand growing for appointments this list is also growing.

To ensure we see the most urgent patients when needed we are going to implement the following short- term change to our appointment system.

From 19^th July until 30^th August we will have a short term change to our appointment system.  Morning appointments can be booked in advance however all afternoon appointments will be same day.  We will be medically triaging these afternoon appointments.

What does this mean?

This means you can still plan and book a routine appointment in advance.  It also means we can hopefully facilitate a same day appointment for medically urgent patients who need to be seen and cannot wait for a routine appointment.  It is most likely you will not get a choice of GP and only the one urgent issue can be dealt with.

As always we appreciate your co-operation and understanding