This Thursday 27^th May 2021 will be our final 2^nd dose Covid Vaccination Clinic. 

As with all our vaccine clinics this will be a very busy morning and so the following will apply:

Dr Orla’s phone in service will not be operational.

All our GP’s and our nurse will be vaccinating all morning so they will not be able to look after any other medical queries.

We will, however have a GP doing routine telephone consultations from 10am to 12pm and from 2pm to 5pm. 

We have no facility for face to face appointments. Our phone lines will not be operational however if you need medical assistance or if you need to cancel your vaccination appointment, please call us on 086 2521921.

We are still awaiting confirmation from the HSE about the pathway for GP Referral for Cohort 4 and 7 patients and would strongly urge any patient who falls into the relevant age cohort to register for their vaccine on the HSE website.

HSE Cyber Hacking & Practice Service Issues

GP Blood Appointments

We have been directed by Connolly Hospital not to send any blood samples to their lab.  We have had no alternative but to cancel all blood appointments scheduled in the surgery this week and next week.  We also have no ability to receive or chase up outstanding blood results, radiology results and

Smear Appointments

Smear appointments have recommenced from Monday 24^th May however we have been advised to expect a delay in receiving results.

OPD Routine Referrals

This is also impacted by the HSE Cyper issue. The public hospitals cannot accept any non urgent GP referrals so unfortunately, we will not be able to send any referrals for public appointments until further notice. Please bear with us while we assist and support our colleagues during this time

HSE Portal/Pathway for GP Vaccine Referrals

Please note we expected this portal to be available to us last week however we are awaiting confirmation from the HSE and presume this will be further delayed due to the current HSE IT crisis.  If you have dropped your form in to us, we will register you as soon as the portal is open and we will send you a text to let you know when this has been done. We would strongly recommend however that any patient who falls into the relevant age cohort to register for their vaccine on the HSE Portal themselves as this may be the quickest way to get your appointment.

Please see below for the form

The most up to date information on Vaccines and Vaccine pathways is still accessible on the HSE website

https://www2.hse.ie/screening-and-vaccinations/covid-19-vaccine/get-the-vaccine/getting-your-vaccine

HSE Cyper Attack & disruption of GP services

GP Blood Appointments

We have been directed by Connolly Hospital not to send any blood samples to their lab.  Therefore we have had no alternative but to cancel all blood appointments scheduled in the surgery this week.  We also have no ability to receive or chase up outstanding blood results, radiology results and any other investigations carried out in Connolly Hospital last week. 

Smear Appointments

As directed by the HSE and Cervical Check, all smear appointments scheduled from 17th May to Friday 21st May have been also cancelled. We do not know the plan for week beginning Monday 24th May and are awaiting an update from the HSE/Cervical Check. Apologies for this inconvenience, we will get these services up and running as quickly as we can.

OPD Routine Referrals

This is also impacted by the HSE Cyper issue. The public hospitals cannot accept any non urgent GP referrals so unfortunately we will not be able to send any referrals for public appointments until further notice. Please bear with us while we assist and support our colleagues during this time.

1. Vaccination Clinic Thursday 13^th May 2021. 

This clinic will be for Dose 2 Covid Vaccine for our age cohort of 74 – 72 year old patients.  As with all our vaccine clinics this will be a very busy morning and so the following will apply:

Dr Orla’s phone in service will not be operational.

All our GP’s and our nurse will be vaccinating all morning so they will not be able to look after any other medical queries.

We will, however have a GP doing routine telephone consultations from 10am to 12pm and will open as usual for the afternoon.

Our phone lines will not be operational however if you need medical assistance or if you need to cancel your vaccination appointment, please call us on 086 2521921.

• Update re GP Pathway for referrals to HSE vaccination centre for patients who fall into Cohort 4 & 7

We have been notified that the referral pathway will be available from Thursday 13^th May.  We plan on registering the patients for whom we have received details on as soon as this is open. Once referred the HSE will register the patient and invite them to a vaccine appointment in one of the HSE Vaccine Clinics. We have no control over when the appointment will be given and which vaccine will be administered.  If you fall into one of these cohorts, have not been vaccinated and would like us to refer you, please download and print the registration form below and return it to us fully filled out.

• Vaccination of Pregnant Women

The vaccination pathway for pregnant women will be arranged in due course through the maternity hospitals.  GP’s are not being asked to vaccinate these patients.

We have completed administering dose 1 and in many cases dose 2 of our Covid Vaccination Programme for our Over 70 patients. We are very aware of the difficulty and frustration our patients have had with our phone lines and while it has been an extremely busy time trying to organise and run these clinics, it has also been a very rewarding few weeks and we thank you for your patience and understanding during this time. We have two more clinics scheduled to cover administering the second dose for the remainder of these patients.

For those patients who have not been vaccinated and fall into Cohort 4a or Cohort 7, the HSE is developing a pathway whereby your GP can refer you via a portal to have your vaccination done in one of the HSE vaccination centres. Our most up to date information on this is that this portal should go live this week. We have listed the categories for Cohort 4a and Cohort 7 below. If you fall into one of these categories, have not been vaccinated and and would like this practice to refer you, please fill in the attached form and return it to the surgery. Please note we will send the referral without delay on your behalf however we have no control over your vaccine, the time and date of appointment as it is HSE lead.

Cohort 4a

Diabetes with Hba1c > 58mmol in the last year

Obesity – BMI >40

Chronic Respiratory Disease – on home oxygen/ hospitalised in past two years

Cohort 7

Cancers

Chronic Heart Disease

Chronic Kidney & Liver Disease

Chronic Respiratory Disease

Diabetes

Immunocompromised due to disease or treatment

Inherited Metabolic Disease

Obesity

Severe Mental Illness

Sickle Cell Disease

On Thursday 29/04/2021 we will be busy with our Covid Vaccination Clinic . This will be a very busy day and so the following will apply

1. Dr Orla’s phone in service will not be operational.
2. All our GP’s and our nurse will be vaccinating all morning so they will not be able to look after any other medical queries
3. We will, however have a GP doing routine telephone consultations from 10am to 12pm and will open as usual for the afternoon.
4. Our phone lines will not be operational however if you need medical assistance or if you need to cancel your vaccination appointment please call us on 086 2521921

As you can imagine, this is a big task and one we are very proud to take on, we would appreciate your co-operation in making this Thursday like our previous clinics a huge success.

We have been inundated with calls from our patients aged 60-69 regarding the Covid Vaccine.

We have been directed by the HSE that all patients in this age cohort should register on the HSE portal even those who fall into cohort 4a and cohort 7. The link is as below:

The HSE helpline number is 1850 2411850

http://vaccine.hse.ie

This portal is currently open to register for those ages 65-69 and our understanding is that this will be open on a phased daily basis for patients aged 60-65.

Patients aged 60-69

GPs have NO role in vaccinating this age cohort. The HSE are NOT supplying GPs with vaccines for this age group.

Please visit the HSE Vaccination Registration portal or ring the HSE Live helpline on 1850 241 850 to register

GP’s have NO role in advising patients in this age cohort about the HSE vaccination programme and GP’s cannot offer an alternative pathway for another vaccine.

The portal is currently open to patients aged 65-69 only. This is the link https://vaccine.hse.ie/

Covid Vaccination Clinic

Our next clinic is scheduled for 29th April 2021. This will be for 2nd dose 79-75 year old patients and the remaining of our over 70’s first dose. Please note, if you are 70 years old and older and have not dropped in a consent form/ or have not heard from us, please make contact with us asap.

Cohort 4a

This is the next cohort as per NIAC recommendation. It applies to patients in the Very High Risk. We are currently working on our lists for these patients however if you fall into these categories and have not been vaccinated yet please print and fill out the consent from below, returning it to the surgery. We will be in touch in due course.

Diabetics with Hba1c > 58mmol in last 12 months

Obesity with a BMI greater than 40

Chronic Respiratory Disease – (on home oxygen or hospitalized in past two years)

Please note we will not be receiving our full quota of vaccines this week, we are doing our best to manage this, and ask that you please respect our staff as this is as disappointing to them as it is to you. Our main aim has been to get as many patients vaccinated as we can but this has always been supply led. Up to now we have vaccinated all in the relevant cohort, this unfortunately is our first clinic with a supply issue.

This Thursday 15th April we will be given our 2nd Covid vaccination to our patients aged 84-80 and we are also starting to vaccinate our next cohort in the over 70’s campaign.

However, as we are not receiving our full quota of vaccines this week, we have had no alternative but to split this group into two clinics.   This week we will be vaccinating our patients aged 74-72 and our remaining 72-70 year old patients will be in the next clinic. We are very sorry not to be able to offer all our patients in this cohort an appointment this Thursday, unfortunately we have no control over this.

Please note, although our IT system provides us with a list of current patients who fall into the relevant cohorts we do not want to miss out on any patient, soif you are aged 70-74, have not heard from us and have not dropped in a consent form, please make contact with us. You can access this consent form below. Alternatively pop in to reception and pick one up, we have plenty printed off.

If you have already dropped in your consent form, you need do nothing other than await our contact, we will be in touch in due course.

Please be assured it is our absolute privilege to be able to provide this service and although the delay for some is disappointing, we will continue to do our best to complete the Over 70’s Covid Vaccination Campaign as quickly as we can.

We will be closed on Monday 5th April 21 due to the bank holiday.

Should you require medical assistance please call our out of hours service

Northdoc on 1850 22 44 77

Covid Vaccination Clinic

We have contacted everyone in our 3rd age cohort for vaccination this Thursday. We will be in touch with you when it is your age cohort, so please watch this website weekly.

On Thursday 01/04/2021 we will be busy vaccinating our 2nd Dose for over 85 year old patients and our 1st dose for 75-79 year old patients. This will be a very busy day and so the following will apply

1. Dr Orla’s phone in service will not be operational.
2. All our GP’s and our nurse will be vaccinating all morning so they will not be able to look after any other medical queries
3. We will, however have a GP doing routine telephone consultations from 10am to 12pm and will open as usual for the afternoon

As you can imagine, this is a big task and one we are very proud to take on, we would appreciate your co-operation in making this Thursday like our previous two clinics a huge success.

Adults with Downs Syndrome are prioritised for COVID-19 Vaccination Allocation Group 4

Most adults (16 and older) with Down Syndrome in Ireland access disability services. There is a small cohort of people with Down Syndrome living in the community who may not access any disability services, approximately 100 adults. If you or a family member fall into this group please contact us and we will give you the relevant pathway for these adults