Practice Policies

PRACTICE OPENING HOURS, CONTACT DETAILS & IMPORTANT PATIENT POLICIES

Opening Hours

Monday–Thursday: 9:00am–6:00pm

From 5:00pm–6:00pm, please contact the doctor on the mobile number only where the matter is urgent.

After 6:00pm, the NEDOC Out-of-Hours GP Service is available.

Please bear in mind that, as a participating NEDOC GP, I am sometimes required to work evening shifts with NEDOC on behalf of the practice. I may therefore be travelling to an Out-of-Hours centre when you are attempting to contact me.

Friday: 9:00am–1:00pm

The practice also carries out Chronic Disease Management clinics throughout Fridays. Please contact reception in the usual way. The doctor's mobile should only be used for urgent matters.

For emergencies after 1:00pm on Fridays, please attend the Emergency Department as appropriate.

From 6:00pm onwards, NEDOC is available.

NEDOC Out-of-Hours:
1800 777 911
www.nedoc.ie

Public Health Nurse

The Public Health Nurse may occasionally be present at the practice premises. However, the PHN service is a separate service and is not part of the GP practice.

Any appointment, assessment or visit involving the Public Health Nurse must therefore be arranged directly with the PHN service in advance.

Practice Fees and GMS / Medical Card Services

Please note that not every service provided by a GP practice is covered under the GMS/Medical Card scheme.

Certain services may fall outside the scope of the GMS contract and may therefore attract a private fee. This may include, where applicable, blood tests, minor surgery, forms, reports, certificates, certain examinations, administrative work and other services that are not funded under the GMS scheme.

The practice follows relevant Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) guidance regarding services that are not covered by the Medical Card/GMS scheme.

The IMO patient notice can be viewed here:

IMO – Notice regarding services not covered by the Medical Card/GMS scheme

https://www.imo.ie/i-am-a/gp/member-advisory-services/Notice-about-Medical-Card-FINAL-new-%28HR%29.pdf

A copy of this notice is also available for patients to view within the practice.

Practice fees may change from time to time for both GMS and private patients in accordance with inflation, contractual changes and individual practice policies.

Where possible, patients will be advised of any applicable fee before the service is provided.

Unpaid Fees Policy

This is a small rural GP practice with significant ongoing costs, including staff wages, premises, utilities, medical equipment, computer software, insurance and other essential services.

Where applicable fees remain outstanding after two payment reminders, patients may be asked to arrange transfer of their medical records and register with another GP, subject to applicable contractual, professional and regulatory requirements.

Repeated or prolonged delays in payment cannot be accommodated.

Where applicable, payment will normally be taken:

• by telephone when booking the consultation; or
• by cash/card on arrival, before the consultation.

Any additional charges arising from the consultation should be paid immediately afterwards by cash or card.

Where necessary, our secretary can assist patients with making a card payment.

One Consultation for the Same Problem Per Day

The current practice policy is one consultation for the same clinical problem per day.

If your condition significantly worsens after you have already been assessed that day, please follow the safety-netting advice provided by the doctor.

Depending on the severity and timing of the deterioration, this may mean contacting the Out-of-Hours service or attending the Emergency Department rather than arranging repeated GP consultations for the same problem on the same day.

Blood Tests

Blood tests organised by the GP practice are normally carried out at the practice premises.

GMS patients may be given the option of attending a hospital phlebotomy service https://www.swiftqueue.com/ where the GP considers this clinically appropriate and has completed and signed the required blood-request form.

The practice cannot take responsibility for blood tests independently organised by another hospital clinician or service. Results requested by hospital teams should ordinarily be followed up by the hospital team that requested them.

As a general practice health-review policy, patients aged over 60 years are encouraged to have appropriate routine blood testing approximately every six months, where clinically indicated.

Other patients may generally have routine blood testing approximately annually, depending on their medical history, medications and clinical circumstances.

Patients are responsible for arranging appropriate follow-up as advised.

Chronic Disease Management blood tests provided under the eligible GMS CDM programme are FREE.

Where a blood-taking service or another service is not covered under the GMS contract, an applicable private fee may apply in accordance with practice policy and relevant IMO guidance.

Blood and Investigation Results

It is practice policy that patients contact the practice for their results.

The doctor, nurse or receptionist will advise you approximately when to contact us, depending on the investigation performed.

Different tests take different lengths of time to return.

Please do not assume that a result is normal simply because you have not been contacted.

Where a result requires urgent action, the practice will make reasonable efforts to contact the patient using the contact details recorded on the medical file.

Patients are responsible for ensuring that the practice has their current telephone number and contact details.

Hospital and Consultant Appointments

It is not practice policy for our staff routinely to chase hospital or consultant appointments where a patient has not received an appointment date.

Patients should contact the relevant public hospital booking office, consultant secretary or private consultant's secretary directly regarding appointment waiting times or appointment dates.

Where there is a significant clinical deterioration or a genuinely new medical concern while awaiting an appointment, please contact the practice for reassessment.

Registration of New Patients

Acceptance of new patients is at the discretion of the GP and the practice, subject to available capacity, eligibility, clinical considerations and the practice's terms and conditions.

The practice does not routinely provide separate refusal letters where an application for registration is not accepted, unless required under an applicable contractual or regulatory process.

APPOINTMENT POLICY

Appointments are generally scheduled for 10 minutes.

Our policy is:

ONE APPOINTMENT • ONE PROBLEM • ONE PATIENT

A 10-minute appointment must allow the clinician sufficient time to:

• take an appropriate medical history;
• examine the patient where required;
• review relevant medical information;
• prescribe medications safely;
• arrange investigations;
• complete referrals;
• document the consultation properly; and
• provide appropriate safety-netting advice.

If you have more than one problem that cannot reasonably be dealt with separately, we are happy to assist you. However, you must tell the receptionist when booking the appointment.

The receptionist can then allocate additional appointment time or additional appointment slots where appropriate.

This is important for both patient safety and the safe running of the practice.

Blood-Taking Appointments

Please do not introduce additional medical problems during a blood-taking appointment.

Blood-taking appointments are specifically allocated for phlebotomy and cannot routinely be converted into full medical consultations.

If you need a medical problem assessed, please arrange an appropriate GP consultation.

Delays during blood clinics affect other patients and may also delay the practice's specimen collection and transport arrangements.

This can also affect drivers collecting specimens from other practices and ultimately delay delivery of samples to the laboratory.

Some blood samples are time-sensitive and may require urgent laboratory processing, including investigations such as INR, D-dimer and troponin, where clinically appropriate.

Please respect the allocated appointment type and appointment time.

Prescriptions

Please allow up to 72 hours for routine prescription requests to be processed.

Patients should therefore request regular medication sufficiently in advance and should not wait until their medication has completely run out.

Certain medications may require a GP review, blood testing, blood-pressure monitoring or other clinical checks before a further prescription can safely be issued.

Religious / Prayer Space

The practice does not have a designated prayer or worship room.

For health, safety, privacy and operational reasons, communal clinical areas, corridors and waiting areas should not be used as prayer or worship spaces.

Respiratory Symptoms

If you have respiratory symptoms, including cough, sore throat, fever or other symptoms suggestive of an infectious respiratory illness:

• please wear a face mask when attending the practice; and
• where appropriate, please test for COVID-19 before attending.

This helps protect vulnerable patients and practice staff.

RESPECT FOR STAFF & ZERO TOLERANCE OF ABUSE

The practice operates a zero-tolerance approach to abusive, threatening, intimidating or aggressive behaviour.

Abuse of doctors, nurses, receptionists or other staff will not be tolerated.

This includes, but is not limited to:

• shouting or aggressive language;
• insults or personal abuse;
• threats or intimidation;
• harassment;
• discriminatory abuse;
• repeated inappropriate telephone calls or messages;
• threatening communications;
• damage to property; or
• physical aggression.

Serious threatening, intimidating or aggressive behaviour may result in the Gardaí/Police being contacted.

Notices regarding unacceptable behaviour are also displayed within the practice.

Repeated breaches of practice policies or unacceptable behaviour may result in formal warning letters.

It is practice policy that where a patient receives two formal warnings, the practice may review the doctor-patient relationship and may proceed with removal of that patient from the GMS or private patient panel, subject to applicable contractual, professional and regulatory requirements.

These policies exist to protect patients, staff and the safe and sustainable operation of the GP practice.

Thank you for respecting the practice, our staff, other patients and the time allocated to your care.