Tag Archives: Shannondoc

Shannondoc, the Mid-West’s out-of-hours non-emergency GP service, confirmed on Monday that its CEO Mike Finucane is leaving the organisation to take up another post after seven years in the role. “It is with regret that we have been informed by our CEO Mike Finucane that, after seven years of dedicated service with Shannondoc, he is moving onto pastures new,” Chairman Pat Morrissey, said. “Mike showed true leadership over those seven years in modernising the operations of Shannondoc and also dealing with a significant period of change and challenge, particularly over recent years due to the fall off in GPs and associated issues that brought about. We will, with immediate effect, begin the tough task of recruiting a replacement for Mike and, in the meantime, will continue service as normal,” he added.

Clare Deputy Dr Michael Harty has pledged to raise the Shannondoc cutbacks in the county at this week’s session of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health. Dr Harty has acknowledged the changes to the Shannondoc out-of-hours services in Kilrush, Ennistymon and Killaloe are a reduction to the medical cover for patients. He claimed these changes are another manifestation of the mismanagement of the health service and highlighted the failure of the HSE to anticipate and plan for the medical manpower crisis which faces general practice and the wider health service. He said all out-of-hours services are experiencing difficulty in finding locums to supplement local GP rosters. “The working commitment and conditions of service required to work in single handed rural practice are too onerous. Consequently, GP positions are not being filled when they become vacant. The contract underpinning these working conditions is in need of urgent review and renegotiation. “Newly qualified GPs and established GPs are emigrating to work in …

Plans have been unveiled for the provision of a video-based remote doctor service in Kilrush, as efforts intensify to halt cutbacks in the out-of-hours Shannondoc service in West and East Clare. It remains to be seen if this will satisfy campaigners seeking a full restoration of GP out-of-hours services throughout the county. Under a new rationalisation plan, which was supported by doctors at a recent annual general meeting, Shannondoc’s Kilrush and Ennistymon services will relocate to Miltown Malbay during weekdays, with the same operating hours applying. Kilrush and Ennistymon will only now open at weekends until 7pm. Shannondoc is to introduce a video-based remote doctor service at its Kilrush centre, allowing it to remain open nightly for two hours. The new service provides for a remote doctor to connect with the Kilrush clinic via a secure, high-definition video link. Patients will contact Shannondoc as they normally would and a triage nurse will first determine if the patient requires a GP …

The planned reduction in GP out-of-hours services in Clare has been condemned as “deeply flawed” by Deputy Timmy Dooley. Shannondoc’s Kilrush and Ennistymon service will close from Monday to Friday, relocating to Miltown Malbay, while the out-of-hours clinic will only open at weekends in Kilrush and Ennistymon. The Killaloe clinic will open during weekends only, on an as-needs basis, with a mobile doctor serving the centre. At weekends, the operating hours will change from 9am to 9pm to 2pm to 6pm, with patients to be seen in Limerick, Ennis and Nenagh centres outside of those hours. The changes to the Killaloe service will start next Monday while the timeframe for changes in West Clare is expected in the near future. The problems caused by the reduction in the number of centres from five to three were outlined by Deputy Dooley, during a special debate in Dáil Éireann. The Fianna Fáil Deputy said it is clear that the evidence upon which …

THE Mid-West’s out-of-hours GP service, Shannondoc, has confirmed that due to a continued shortage of doctors, it is no longer able to maintain existing out-of-hours service levels across all its centres. Shannondoc, a not-for-profit service delivered by GPs in the region, will introduce changes to its Killaloe, Kilrush and Ennistymon centres over the coming weeks. The Killaloe clinic will open during weekdays only on an as-needs basis, with a mobile doctor servicing the centre, while at weekends the operating hours will change from 9am to 9pm to 2pm to 6pm, with patients seen at Limerick, Ennis and Nenagh centres outside those hours. Shannondoc’s Kilrush and Ennistymon service will relocate to Miltown Malbay during weekdays, with the same operating hours applying. Both centres will be operational on Saturdays and Sundays up to 7pm, instead of 9pm as it is currently. Kilrush county councillor Ian Lynch has called for an immediate public meeting on the issue, noting that the 35-mile journey from …

The medical assessment unit (MAU) at Ennis Hospital, which is part of UL Hospitals’ Group, is now operating seven days a week. The Mid-West HSE said it hopes the expansion of opening hours to include weekends will help to ease overcrowding in the emergency department at University Hospital Limerick but, more importantly, will also provide and enhance the service for the local people and GPs. Since opening in 2013, the number of patients presenting at Ennis MAU has increased year-on-year with between 20 to 35 patients assessed daily. Dr Tom Peirce, consultant in charge, explained, “The unit aim to see patients within two hours of arrival. In approximately 15% of cases, we will admit the patients who come to the MAU but the emphasis is on same-day diagnosis, treatment and discharge, wherever possible. The MAU work very closely with the community intervention teams to ensure a seamless pathway of care for the patient between our hospital and home,” said Dr …

A  FEAKLE man, who called a taxi to bring him from his digs in Foynes to a Shannondoc surgery in Newcastle West, had collapsed and was not breathing by the time they arrived at the surgery, an inquest heard this week. Thomas (Tom) O’Donoghue (41), from Main Street, Feakle, was working with Foynes Engineering and staying in the Shannon House bar and guesthouse in Foynes at the time of his death, December 14 last. The inquest in Newcastle West heard that Mr O’Donoghue, a single man born in April 1974,  had gone upstairs about 10pm but came back down about 11pm, complaining of chest pains and shortness of breath. The co-owner of the guest-house, Richard O’Connor, said in a deposition read out at the inquest, that he was out for a walk when one of his staff rang to say that Mr O’Donoghue was complaining of breathing problems. He returned to Shannon House, where he saw Mr O’Donoghue “slumped over”. …

THE out-of-hours GP service insists there is no major change to the level of service at Shannon, noting if a patient needs to be seen, they will be. Due to the low level of appointments in Shannon between the hours of 9pm and midnight at weekends, which average two per night, the contrasting high throughput at Ennis and lack of GPs means a GP relocates to Ennis from Shannon for these hours. In a statement to The Clare Champion following what were described as “unfounded claims” about a closure of the centre, Shannondoc pointed out its GP does not relocate to Ennis if there are further scheduled appointments at Shannon and that it also sends a GP back to Shannon in the event a patient cannot travel to Ennis. This system has been in place since September 22 and has run well it claimed. Last weekend, the Shannon centre had just two appointment requests between 9pm and 12 midnight.  Both patients …