Services available at the surgery

The annual flu vaccine protects against the common strains of influenza virus circulating in the current year. It is particularly recommended to people in high risk categories, e.g pregnant women, people with chronic illnesses, compromised immune systems.

Flu vaccine for children aged 2-12 is also being offered free of charge from September 2020 (PPS number required) This is nasal vaccine and is well tolerated

There are regular ‘flu vaccination clinics to facilitate demand- please ring to book in.

Our practice nurses are very experienced phlebotomists. Your doctor will discuss the appropriate tests with you for investigation and screening. Samples are delivered to St Vincents hospital daily and results are sent back electronically, directly into your personal file.

If you have had blood tests taken in the surgery and are awaiting results please phone the surgery after 7-10 days. The Reception staff are unable to give results as a matter of policy. A message will be taken and either the Nurse of one of the doctors will phone you with the results.

Normal results may be texted via SMS messaging or our Practice Nurse may call you.

Abnormal results may be best followed up with a further appointment. Your doctor will either phone to discuss the result or, if more appropriate, get our reception staff to contact you to suggest making a further appointment.

Sandycove Surgery is part of the East Coast Area Diabetes Shared Care (ECADs) Programme since 2002 in which patients with Type 2 Diabetes are enrolled. Each patient is reviewed by a Dietician specialising in Diabetes and a Diabetes Nurse Specialist (DNS) at a dedicated clinic in the surgery while a regular annual assessment is performed at St Vincents, St Michaels or Louglinstown hospital.

Any suitable patient diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in our practice will be offered the opportunity to be cared for within this scheme. Satisfaction levels amongst patients participating are generally high due to the one to one contact with experienced professionals at each visit who monitor your response to treatment and provide ongoing advice and support in the familiar surroundings of the surgery, avoiding lengthy delays in the hospital.

The dietician and diabetic nurse attend weekly specialist diabetic meetings with the hospital teams and any concerns regarding a particular patient are discussed there. Information on each patient,including blood test results, is communicated via a database between the community diabetic clinic and the hospital clinic which helps to provide better continuity of care.

Within this scheme, patients have the opportunity to receive multidisciplinary Diabetes care from familiar personnel within their own GP practice which is generally close to where they live with less waiting time.

Within this scheme, patients have the  opportunity to receive multidisciplinary Diabetes care from familiar personnel within their own GP practice which is generally close to where they live with less waiting time.

A full health check is a detailed examination designed to identify any current health problems and to help prevent illnesses that are most likely to affect you in the future.

The emphasis on each health check is to diagnose any current or developing condition requiring investigation or treatment, detection of specific lifestyle problem areas such as smoking, alcohol use, weight reduction and advice about how to prevent common conditions such as heart disease, stroke, diabetes and cancer. Each health check is tailored to a person’s age.

Each health check starts with a 30 minute consultation with the nurse and a follow up appointment with your doctor. This includes a full symptom screen, medical history, medication review and family history. Blood tests including cholesterol, diabetes, kidney, liver, thyroid as appropriate in addition to a cervical smear (if appropriate) and test for blood in the stool Please fast for twelve hours before this appointment.

Your doctor will then go through a detailed assessment of your history, a full physical examination and results of blood tests. Any further investigations or follow up deemed necessary will be discussed with you at this time.

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The doctors at this practice advocate a proactive approach to maintaining health and preventing avoidable health problems. We are very keen to get this message across to men of all ages and to encourage them to attend for a check-up. This might entail regular follow up to ensure proper management of a chronic medical condition or a more tailored, detailed full medical check -up for a client who has no acute problems but wishes to identify any potential problems.

These in-depth medicals are carried out over two visits and will include a detailed history, examination and blood work, appropriate to the individual .Our doctors are experienced in dealing with a wide range of conditions including chronic disease management, cardiovascular assessment, prostate disease ,erectile dysfunction and mental health problems. Each health check starts with a 30 minute consultation with the nurse and a follow up appointment with your doctor. This includes a full symptom screen, medical history, medication review and family history. Blood tests including cholesterol, diabetes, kidney, liver, thyroid, prostate as appropriate and test for blood in the stool. Please fast for twelve hours before this appointment.

Free Cervical Screening via Cervical Check national screening programme

Cervical smears help to prevent cervical cancer by detecting abnormal cells in the cervix before they become cancerous. Exposure to the human papilloma virus (HPV) is responsible for the development of almost all cervical cancers. Cervical cancer is treatable if detected early, hence the importance of routine, regular screening. Many women’s lives have been saved as a result of successful cervical screening programmes.

The advent of the HPV vaccine (gardasil and cervarix) are a very welcome addition in the fight against cervical cancer. It is very important to realize however, that women must still attend for routine cervical screening even if they have received this vaccine. This is because the vaccines protect against the HPV types that cause approximately 70% of cervical cancer but there are other strains of the virus that they do not protect against that can also cause cancer.

Cervicalcheck  is available nationally to all women between the age of 25 and 60. If you wish to have a smear, please speak with our secretaries who will be able to check if you are due a smear and will register you with cervical check. You will then be able to make an appointment with the nurse for your smear without further delay.

Please have your PPS number available in order for them to be able to do this for you.

Alternatively, you can ring 1800 454555 or log onto www.cervicalcheck.ie and register with Cervical Check directly. A letter of invitation will then be sent out to you, which you will need to bring in with you to your appointment. The results are available approximately 4 weeks after the test is completed and will be posted out to you. If there is any abnormality on your result, you will receive a call from our nurse or your doctor to explain the nature of this and to discuss appropriate follow up.

We are happy to offer private cervical smears for women not entitled to a free smear but who wish to have a smear test outside the suggested screening programme  intervals . The sample will be sent to a private laboratory in Dublin. This will incur an additional fee.