To ensure optimum medical treatment, Ashdown Medical Centre encourages patients, where possible, to attend for a GP consultation in the medical centre. Where this is not possible, house call requests will be passed on to the patient’s regular GP. Ashdown Medical Centre will endeavour to attend requested house calls, but cannot guarantee a timely attendance on every occasion. If you are in need of urgent medical attention we advise you to contact the emergency services by dialling 999/112.

In instances where lab test results necessitate further action or a review consultation with a GP, the patient will be contacted directly by Ashdown Medical Centre, either by text or by phone call. All other lab test results can be acquired by contacting Ashdown Medical Centre directly.

Once you contact the surgery an admin team member will first ask you for your name and address in order to check your file and make sure we have received your test results before putting you through to a nurse or forwarding your message onto the appropriate clinician & then you will receive a call back or text regarding your results. This is done to save time as sometimes results do not come back within the estimated time frame. If your lab tests were requested by a clinician outside of Ashdown Medical Centre, please contact that clinician to discuss your results.

N. B. Please bear in mind that due to the great number of test results received in Ashdown Medical Centre daily, it is sometimes difficult for the team to take all the results calls immediately. If this is the case when you phone in, a member of the admin team will take your name and number and pass a message onto a doctor or nurse. They will then call you back with your results at a later stage.

In most cases lab results will be received back to the surgery 10 days after the tests have been taken. If for some reason you have not heard from us by then please contact us directly.

The GMS medical card entitles holders to a wide range of medical services from their nominated GP / surgery. These services are provided to the medical card holder free of charge and include standard consultations for treatment of illnesses and related services necessary for the treatment of a wide range of medical conditions.

Full medical card and ‘Doctor Only’ medical card holders are entitled to the same services free of charge within the surgery.

There are, however, some services which are not covered under the Medical Card scheme. The most usual services requested which are not covered by the Medical Card scheme are:

• Medical Examinations or Reports for Legal Purposes
• Examinations relating to Insurance Policies
• Examinations relating to Fitness to Drive Including Eye Test
• Pre-Employment Examinations
• School Entry Examinations
• Examinations in connection with fitness to take part in sports
• Some Vaccinations (including travel vaccinations)
• Some Family Planning Services
• Blood Testing, Dressings, STI Screening, 24hr Blood pressure monitor, Audiograms & Spirometry.

GMS Medical Card patients requesting any of the above services are responsible for the relevant fees.

All repeat prescription requests are dealt with on a 48 hours notice basis. Patients may request prescriptions online using the Online Prescriptions function, by email, or by either phoning or calling into reception to request their prescription.

Requests will be sent directly to the relevant patient’s GP who will review the patient file and provide a new prescription where appropriate.
Where necessary patients may be requested to attend their GP where medication or condition needs to be reviewed. In such instances, the prescription will be deferred until this consultation has taken place.

Sick Certs

Patients requiring a sick cert for work, should call Ashdown Medical Centre on 061301200, or call in to the medical centre in person. Details of the request will be forwarded to a GP and certs are usually available for collection the 24 hours later. You may be required to see your GP prior to receiving a sick cert.

Social Welfare Certs

Patients requiring a Social Welfare certificate must see a GP and/or provide correspondence from another doctor to qualify for the first Social Welfare certificate. You will be requested to provide your PPS number and exact dates from which the Social Welfare certificate is due. Patients will be reviewed at the request of the GP and you must present when requested for cert review.

Calpol 2.5mls can be given to babies following their two-month vaccination but only to treat a temperature which develops following the vaccination. If your baby is unwell and you are concerned, please seek medical advice.

If your child experiences post vaccination fever give him/her:

• Calpol (paracetamol) as recommended on bottle or sachet
• Make sure you encourage plenty of fluids
• Keep them cool
• Gently sponge your child’s body, arms and legs with tepid water for no more than five minutes
• Let them rest

Paracetamol suspension (Calpol) is the usual choice and ibuprofen (Nurofen) is an alternative antipyretic.

Your child will receive scheduled vaccination injections. The vaccine helps your child fight off or prevent certain diseases and is given as an injection. The vaccination stimulates your child’s immune system to make antibodies to fight the disease. Serious major reactions are extremely rare however minor reactions are common following childhood vaccinations, these include:

• Tenderness, slight redness, small lump at injection site
• Slight temperature
• Decrease in appetite
• Off form/irritable
• Lack of energy

ShannonDoc is an urgent out of hours GP Service
CALL 0818123500
MONDAY – FRIDAY 6 PM – 8 AM
WEEKENDS AND BANK HOLIDAYS – 24 HOURS

ShannonDoc is a partnership between the General Practitioners in the Mid-West region and the Health Service Executive.

When you ring 0818123500 your call will be answered by specially trained personnel who will ask for your details including, name, address, date of birth, telephone number, symptoms of illness/complaint, own GP’s name and medical card details (where applicable).

This information will be given to the doctor who will return your call and advise on the most appropriate course of action. In most cases one of the following courses of action will be followed:

• nursing / medical advice over the telephone
• a visit to a treatment centre for further examination by a doctor
• where the doctor determines the need, a patient may be visited in their own home.

Details of your consultation will be automatically forwarded to your own GP the following working day.

ShannonDoc is not a walk in service and all patients must phone ShannonDoc to see if an appointment is necessary. Patients with appointments are given full priority, those attending without first contacting the centre by phone can expect an increased waiting time.

This practice has voluntarily signed up for the ICGP Data Protection Guideline for GPs. The processing of personal data in general practice is necessary in order to protect the vital interests of the patient and for the provision of health care and public health. You can access the Guideline at http://www.icgp.ie/data. In most circumstances we hold your data until 8 years after your death or 8 years since your last contact with the practice. There are exceptions to this rule and these are described in the Guideline referenced above.

In order to provide for your care here we need to collect and keep information about you and your health on our records.

• We retain your information securely.
• We will only ask for and keep information that is necessary. We will attempt to keep it as accurate and up to-date as possible. We will explain the need for any information we ask for if you are not sure why it is needed.
• We ask you to inform us about any relevant changes that we should know about. This would include such things as any new treatments or investigations being carried out that we are not aware of. Please also inform us of change of address and phone numbers.
• All persons in the practice (not already covered by a professional confidentiality code) sign a confidentiality agreement that explicitly makes clear their duties in relation to personal health information and the consequences of breaching that duty.
• Access to patient records is regulated to ensure that they are used only to the extent necessary to enable the secretary or manager to perform their tasks for the proper functioning of the practice. In this regard, patients should understand that practice staff may have access to their records for:
• Identifying and printing repeat prescriptions for patients. These are then reviewed and signed by the GP.
• Generating a sickness certificate for the patient. This is then checked and signed by the GP.
• Typing referral letters to hospital consultants or allied health professionals such as physiotherapists, occupational therapists, psychologists and dieticians.
• Opening letters from hospitals and consultants. The letters could be appended to a patient’s paper file or scanned into their electronic patient record.
• Scanning clinical letters, radiology reports and any other documents not available in electronic format.
• Downloading laboratory results and Out of Hours Coop reports and performing integration of these results into the electronic patient record.
• Photocopying or printing documents for referral to consultants, attendance at an antenatal clinic or when a patient is changing GP.
• Checking for a patient if a hospital or consultant letter is back or if a laboratory or radiology result is back, in order to schedule a conversation with the GP.
• When a patient makes contact with a practice, checking if they are due for any preventative services, such as vaccination, ante natal visit, contraceptive pill check, cervical smear test, etc.
• Handling, printing, photocopying and postage of medico legal and life assurance reports, and of associated documents.
• Sending and receiving information via Healthmail, secure clinical email.
• And other activities related to the support of medical care appropriate for practice support staff.

We may need to pass some of this information to other health and social care professionals in order to provide you with the treatment and services you need. Only the relevant part of your record will be released. These other professionals are also legally bound to treat your information with the same duty of care and confidentiality that we do.

The law provides that in certain instances personal information (including health information) can be disclosed, for example, in the case of infectious diseases.

In general, work-related Medical Certificates from your GP will only provide a confirmation that you are unfit for work with an indication of when you will be fit to resume work. Where it is considered necessary to provide additional information, we will discuss that with you. However, Department of Social Protection sickness certs for work must include the medical reason you are unfit to work.

In the case of disclosures to insurance companies or requests made by solicitors for your records we will only release the information with your signed consent.

It is usual for patient  information to be used for research and audit in order to improve services and standards of practice. GPs on the specialist register of the Medical Council are required to perform yearly clinical audits. Information used for such purposes is done in an anonymised or pseudonymised manner with all personal identifying information removed.

If it were proposed to use your information in a way where it would not be anonymous or the Practice was involved in external research, we would discuss this further with you before we proceeded and seek your written informed consent. Please remember that the quality of the patient service provided can only be maintained and improved by training, teaching, audit and research.

You have the right of access to all the personal information held about you by this practice. If you wish to see your records, in most cases the quickest way is to discuss this with your doctor who will review the information in the record with you. You can make a formal written access request to the practice and receive a copy of your medical records. These will be provided to you within thirty days, without cost.

If you decide at any time and for whatever reason to transfer to another practice, we will facilitate that decision by making available to your new doctor a copy of your records on receipt of your signed consent from your new doctor. For medico-legal reasons we will also retain a copy of your records in this practice for an appropriate period of time which may exceed eight years.

You have other rights under data protection regulations in relation to transfer of data to a third country, the right to rectification or erasure, restriction of processing, objection to processing and data portability. Further information on these rights in the context of general practice is described in the Guideline available at http://www.icgp.ie/data. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Data Protection Commissioner.

We hope this document has explained any issues that may arise. If you have any questions, please speak to the practice secretary or your doctor.