Sandycove Surgery provides a full range of general practice services to public and private patients.
- -Flu Vaccine
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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.
- -Blood Tests
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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.
- -Diabetes care
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.
- -Practice Nurse
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Services provided by our practice nurses are:-
- Childhood Vaccinations
- Travel Vaccinations
- Blood Tests
- Blood Pressure Checks & 24 hour Blood Pressure Monitoring
- Ear Syringing
- Cervical Smears
- Dressings
- Well Women/Well Man Screening health Checks
- Suture Removal
- Asthma Clinic
- -Women’s Health Check
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.
- -Travel Health
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Immunisation and Vaccination Services
We carry a stock of routine travel vaccinations including Typhoid, Hepatitis A and B, Tetanus, Diphtheria, Polio, Rabies and Yellow Fever. If you are going to travel abroad we recommend that you arrange to see the doctor well in advance of travelling, who will advise what vaccinations may be required, taking into account any travel vaccinations you may have received for previous trips. A minimum of 4- 6 weeks prior to travel is suggested but some vaccines require 3 injections to complete (e.g hepatitis B) and will need to be started well in advance to ensure an adequate response.
Your doctor will also advise you about malaria prophylaxis and other medication that may be required depending on your destination.
An excellent public access website gives travel health information for people travelling abroad. Check out www.fittotravel.nhs.uk
- -Men’s Health Check
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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.
- -Sexual Health Screening
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All of our doctors offer a full Sexual Health Screening service for men and women in a discrete, non-judgemental setting. This includes screening and treatment of Chlamydia, genital warts, genital herpes etc.
STCs are very common but often do not cause symptoms. Screening is a safe and easy way of diagnosing an infection which can usually be treated easily, quickly and effectively. Failure to treat an infection can lead to serious long term problems such as infertility.
- -Pregnancy Care
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We are happy to offer pre- conception advice to couples planning to start a family. This will include checking rubella immunity, a cervical smear if appropriate and advice about folic acid supplementation and smoking cessation. This is particularly important for women with certain medical conditions such as diabetes, epilepsy and thyroid disorders.
We offer women the option of participation in the combined ante-natal care scheme. This involves alternate visits between your obstetrician or midwife and your GP for the duration of your pregnancy. Once approved by the HSE, women are entitled to free ante-natal and post-natal care with the doctors in our surgery.
We like to see women early in their pregnancy to organize hospital follow up and identify any potential medical issues that need managing early in the pregnancy.
- -Child & Baby Care
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Any unwell child will be seen as a priority.
All of our doctors have extensive paediatric experience.
We aim to provide a friendly and helpful environment where parents feel comfortable bringing their children for attentive medical care and easy access to follow up.
In addition we offer the following services:- 2 week postnatal check up (free as part of shared antenatal care)
- 6 week developmental check ups (free as part of shared antenatal care)
- Childhood vaccinations: please visit www.immunisation.ie to see the most up to date immunisations schedule for your child (free)
- General health care for children
- Chronic disease management e.g. Asthma management
- Children’s blood tests
- -Cervical Screening
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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.
- -Womens Health and Family Planning
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Some of the services we offer include:-
- Contraception including insertion and removal of Mirena Coil and Implanon
- Maternity Care
- Subfertility Counselling
Difficulty conceiving can be a difficult and stressful time in a couples life. We would be happy to discuss any concerns you may have and offer appropriate advice including initial investigations that may be required and appropriate specialist referral should this be necessary. - Breast Cancer Screening
- Advice, Counselling and Treatment on the Menopause, Osteoporosis and HRT
- Sexual Health Advice and Screening for Sexually Transmitted Diseases including Chlamydia, Gonorrhea, Hepatitis B and C, HIB and Syphillis
- Crisis Pregnancy Management
- Dealing with Domestic Violence
- Mental Health
- Well Woman’s Health Checks
- Cervical Cancer Vaccination