New Health Care Centre in Crookstown
(This is the full story which was published recently in the Kilcullen page of the Kildare Nationalist.)
The centre, which includes a Well Woman Centre, is the brainchild of a husband and wife who are both doctors, and who have made their home in Ireland for many years.
Dr Haroon Sabri previously worked in Portlaoise General Hospital, and prior to that in Naas Hospital, as a consultant in the A&E Department. He has also worked in Galway and Cork. His wife Roohina, a gynaecologist, had also set up a Well Woman Clinic in Portlaoise in recent years.
“One of my staff in Portlaoise who lives around here mentioned that anyone who needed a doctor had to go to somewhere like Kilcullen, Athy Carlow or Portlaoise,” Dr Sabri says. “She suggested that there was an opening for a medical centre in the area. “As it happens, foreign doctors like myself are not allowed to work for more than three years in the one hospital, and I was going to have to move anyway. So we decided to set up a practice in Crookstown.”
Dr Sabri was facilitated by local businessman Seamus Reilly, who redesigned two retail units in Crookstown to provide all the accommodation needed by a full medical centre.
“There is a definite potential for our practice here, because in the hinterland of Crookstown, which includes Halverstown, Timolin and Ballitire, there are some 8,000 people living in the area.”
The Haroons are originally from Pakistan, which Dr Sabri recalls as being very beautiful, but is now very troubled and not an easy place to live in since the events of 9/11. “My family is there, and there are many opportunities for a doctor to work, but security is now the issue. You have to wonder also about bringing up your children in such a situation.”
The Haroons’ son is studying Fifth Year medicine himself in the UCD Medical School.
Dr Sabri is very aware of the challenges involved in setting up a complete new medical practice where there hasn’t been one before. “It isn’t easy, or quick. But it is mainly about personal contact, and letting people know that we are here. We have planned two Open Day sessions, for instance, where people can come and see the facilities which we have here, and meet with us.”
As well as the General Practice service, Dr Roohina will be operating a Well Woman Clinic in the Crookstown centre, in addition to the one in Portlaoise.
What the new centre is offering to a quite scattered rural community is a convenience which they haven’t had up to now, and a GP practice with access to any particular speciialists who may be needed.
“A number of consultant colleagues, including paediatrics and ENT, have agreed to come to the centre when required, and we have the latest computer link-ups with the local hospital system, so we can immediately access the results of tests, x-rays, and other information.”
Indeed, a number of new online systems are imminent in in Ireland which will make the work of a rural medical centre even more efficient, allowing direct computer to computer links between consultants and other sources of expertise.
Dr Sabri’s work in A&E departments has given him a wide range of experience in the typical ailments of different age and demographic groups, so there’s not likely to be anything presented which he hasn’t been in contact with.
The facilities at Crookstown have been designed so that there is plenty of space as the practice grows, and it will include nurse, physiotherapist and chiropody services in due course.
The receptionist at the centre is well known to Kilcullen people. Patricia Deering is one of the popular Shortt family.
Information on Women’s Health Care and Family Planning will be available at an upcoming Open Day sessions on Thursday 11 February from 7-9pm.
Further information is available from 059 8623558 or email crookstownhc@hotmail.com
Brian Byrne.
