Update from Kilcullen Family Practice

Photo by Gareth Landy.

Kilcullen Family Practice is open for business but the work of the practice has changed greatly and will remain that way for some time to come.

Like all the other parts of the community this past eight weeks have been very difficult. Thankfully all the team have remained unaffected by Covid infection and we have seen low numbers of our patients affected. It is very important that your health is not affected by non Covid issues now and in the future.

As many of you know we have transferred a large portion of our work to telephone consultations and to electronic communication of photographs, correspondence and prescriptions. This last is done with the co operation of the local Pharmacies who have also had to alter their way of managing new and repeat prescriptions. We continue to have contact with many patients every day and see a number of patients in person. Our vaccination, maternity and other essential work has been unaffected.

We are working on ways of unwinding our lockdown but we will have to retain many of the changes in place for your safety and ours for the future remembering that these changes are likely to continue for the next 12 months.

Our aim is to reduce the number of people in the practice building itself to a minimum. When you phone for an appointment the secretary will ask the reason for the appointment. This allows us to direct it to the Doctor, the Nurse or the Administrator to deal with either over the phone or in person. We will do a lot of work over the phone or on video consultations. We appreciate that, for many, talking to your doctor or nurse on the phone or on a screen is a new and very different way of seeking medical attention but be assured that a Tele-consultation with a doctor or nurse who has your full medical record and is familiar with you and your health is very safe and effective.

We hope to extend dispatching of Certificates, Letters and other paperwork we generate to email but we have to ensure this is done with electronic security to protect patient confidentiality.

We cannot operate a Waiting Room as we did in the past. On our side this will involve endeavouring to run all appointments on time, in turn this may affect the length of time you have with the doctor compared to past times.

HSE Clinical Hubs have been set up to allow patients who may have Covid infection to be assessed. This is arranged by referral from us to the local hubs in Newbridge and Naas.

We have all have learned a lot about viral infections and infection control. Where previously you may have come to be checked or have your child checked when sick you will have learned that the best treatment of any viral illness is to stay at home so as not to spread any virus, not just Covid 19 virus.

How we operate in the future may change, according to how the Covid situation develops. If so, we will post further updates.

Thank you for all your support and good wishes.

Dr Deirdre Collins
Dr Susanna Francke
Dr Paul Hickey
All the team at Kilcullen Family Practice.