Our Saturday walk in surgery will re-commence from Saturday 5th September.  This is run from 9.30-11.30am.  Should you require medical assistance outside these hours, please contact Doctor on Duty on 01 4539333.

From 5th August any patient over the age of 70 will be eligible for free GP care. Your PPS number and that of your spouse (should they also be over 70) are required for this application. We are inviting all our over 70 patients to apply for this service using one of the following ways to apply:

1) Online at http://www.gpvisitcard.ie
2) Call 1850 252 919 to request an application form to be sent to you
3) Pop into the surgery where we have application forms printed off and will happily assist you with this registration process

For more information please see our Over 70’s tab

Registering babies under 2 months with no PPS number

To register your baby without a PPS number go www.citizeninformation.ie search “GP visit cards for children under 6” and you will find the paper version of the application.  Print and complete the form leaving the PPS number blank. Bring to the surgery where Dr Orla McCormack will sign the form and you then post back to the HSE (GP visit card- Under 6’s, PO box 12629, Dublin 11.)

**Please note: NB

As soon as you receive your child’s GMS number (via text and/or post) It is very important that you contact the surgery with this information.  Children are not covered for the under 6’s scheme until this number has been inputted and verified on our system. 

Emergency Appointments for Under 6’s

The morning designated times for under 6’s are for emergencies only.  Routine appointments are carried out in the afternoons. We would ask that you respect the nature of the emergency appointments to ensure the most urgent cases are seen as quick as is possible.

One appointment per child

When making an appointment for the under 6’s please indicate at this stage if the appointment is for 1 or 2 children.  It is not possible for our GP’s to squeeze a second child into an appointment time designated to one child.

There has been a change to the primary childhood immunisation schedule for all babies born on or after the 1st July 15.  The change means your child will receive only two injections at 6 months whereas prior to this, they would have received 3. Below is the new schedule and for more information please visit:

http://www.hse.ie/eng/health/immunisation/pubinfo/babychildimm/babychildimm.html

Dr Orla McCormack is registered for The Under 6’s Contract. For information on how to register your child or for the practice policy for under 6’s please visit the “under 6 contract” tab across the top of this page.

Thank you to everyone who supported our research into our phone systems and many thanks to to all our patients who took the time to give us their feedback. We also carried out an internal phone log to find out how you, our patients were using our phone system.

On analysis of the above information we intend to implement the changes as outlined below:

1. Dr Orla’s Phone in Service.
Presently this service is provided Monday to Friday 9– 9.30am except Wednesday. This service operates through the main phone line and as such causes extra congestion at a time when we know the phone service is already at its busiest.

From June 1st, the number to contact Orla during the phone in service is 01 8203582.

This is a dedicated phone line used exclusively for the phone in service and only operational Monday-Friday 9-9.30am except Wednesday. Please be aware that should you try to contact Dr Orla through the main phone line, 01 8203303 from June 1st we will be unable to put you through to Dr Orla.

2) Extra Staff 
Through our phone in log we have clarified that the busiest time of phone use by you, our patient is from 9-9.30am and 2-2.30pm.

From June 1st, we will have an extra staff member answering the phone at these times (9-9.30am and 2-2.30pm)

3) Phone switched on earlier
Your feedback and our phone log has clarified that the most congestion on the phone system is in the morning.

From June 1st, our phone lines will open at 8.45 am every morning Monday – Friday

We sincerely hope that the above initiatives will improve the service we provide to you. We would also ask for your co-operation and patience during the transition phase.

As always, your feedback is valued and welcomed, so please feel free to drop a note into our comments box in the waiting room or simply tell the girls at reception. They will be only too happy to pass it on.

For all test results please contact our nursing team on Monday’s-Thursday’s from 2-3pm on 0862047305. Please note that some routine blood tests may take up to 10 working days to be processed.  For ultrasounds, x-ray’s and MRI results please leave your details with our reception team who will ensure you are contacted with your results

A corner stone of our business is Communication. It is always on our radar as an area of improvement/development.  We have instigated some new initiatives:

Health Mail

The practice has joined up to Health mail. This is a specialist medical email system that allows secure transfer of confidential medical information between medical professionals. It is approved by the HSE and the ICGP. The Parks Medical Centre is registered and can communicate with other health care professionals that are also registered eg other GP’s or Hospitals. An example of its use is emailing referral letters to Consultants, rather than what happens presently ( at your request we fax your letter to the Consultant). This is ill advised by our medico legal advisors as your confidentiality may be compromised. We do it, when requested, to oblige you. Health mail allows us to provide the same service to you without compromising your confidentiality.

Text Messages

We would like to inform all our patients that we can now send messages via text. As you know text messaging is a very quick and effective way to communicate.  We envisage using the text message to advise patients to contact the surgery about results, appointments etc. Your permission will first be sought by way of verbal consent as will confirmation of your correct mobile number. All this will be documented and saved to your file. We feel this new service will save both patient and clinician a considerable amount of time trying to make contact. Your privacy will always be respected as will your wish not to be texted should this be the case. Please be assured of our commitment to always maintain absolute confidentiality when dealing with any medical information.

Telephone communication continues to be an ongoing problem for our doctors and no doubt a source of frustration for you, our patients. All the doctors work very hard to respond to telephone call requests on the same day. Increasingly, we return the calls and there is either no answer or no facility to leave a message so at least you, our patients, know that we have returned your calls. The times that we can return your calls is between 12.30 and 2pm or between 5-8pm. It would assist us hugely if you could be aware of these times and have your phones with you or at least have a facility that we can leave a message. Please be assured of our goodwill at all times.

We have received notification from some Dublin Hospitals that they are removing referred patients from their waiting lists where a patient can not be contacted or the patient has not attended an appointment.

When your GP does a referral letter for you your contact information is transferred to this referral letter. It is vital that we hold the most up to date contact information for you.

Please ensure that your contact information on your file in the practice is as up to date as possible.

Thank you for your assistance