This article is from page 65 of the 2008-08-12 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 65 JPG
that the new serv- ice is taking a huge amount of pres- sure off the traditional hospital mod- el while bringing health services to the people.
The programme, which was devel- oped during the past two years and which is up and running for almost six months, is providing a range of health services close to the people of north Clare.
The team serves a population of
almost 7,000 people spread out over almost 6,000 square kilometres in- cluding Corofin, Lisdoonvarna, Kil- fenora, Ballyvaughan, Kinnonaboy, Carran, Boston and Doolin.
By ensuring services such as physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech and language therapy and community nursing are close to the people it takes travelling pressure off patients.
This team of GPs, nurses and thera- pists also meet fortnightly to discuss cases and how they can improve the service to the client.
Dr Glynn explained that as general practice and primary care medicine is an area where professionals are al- ways learning from each other, these meetings are therefore a valuable as- om
The team also discuss difficult pa-
tient cases and how other disciplines may also be able to help the patient.
“This model is providing a better outcome and it is less expensive,” said Dr Glynn.
“We are finding it beneficial be- cause we are getting patients seen in a more timely fashion and we can prioritise patients,” he added.
The Corofin GP said that prior to this GPs were referring patients to faceless people in other services but now they meet the other profession- als on a regular basis and can discuss the patient’s treatment and progress.
Many of the services are based in north Clare on a full time basis with service likes the dietician service spending a number of days a month in the area.
Physiotherapy is based in Bally- vaughan with outreach in other prac-
(Coe
A new speech and language thera- pist is to be appointed to cater for the area in the coming weeks, and will be based more than likely in En- nistymon.
Although a fledging project this progressive team already have a pro- posal before the HSE for a chiropo- ohm
The basic premise behind the es- tablishment of primary care teams is that most of the extended health care needs of the members of a particular community can and should be met by healthcare professionals working in that area, removing the need for longer, costly and often tiring jour- neys to outside locations and unfa- miliar professionals. North Clare is leading the way in this new form of health care.