Primary care centre hailed as model for future

A STATE-OF-THE-ART primary care centre, due to be officially opened this week, is being hailed by health professionals as a future…

A STATE-OF-THE-ART primary care centre, due to be officially opened this week, is being hailed by health professionals as a future model for providing care outside hospital facilities.

The Mallow Primary Healthcare Centre claims to offer the most comprehensive array of health services ever available under a single roof.

The 6,500sq m facility has amalgamated the town’s medical centre, the Red House family practice and the Cork Road Clinic, which includes 17 family doctors, as well medical students from local universities.

The Health Service Executive provides a range of services on location, including speech and language therapy, community mental health, social work and occupational therapy. In addition, the new centre includes the services of an acupuncturist, an optician and a pharmacy.

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A spokesman for the centre said the aim was to bring primary care to a “new level” which met international best practices and standards.

“We provide open access primary care to the [entire] community of Mallow and its environs to best standards, encompassing the latest technology, which helps us fulfil our aim of bringing modern facilities, diagnostic examinations and medical care to the patient in the community,” the spokesman said.

“We’ll continue to look for new ways of providing extra services to our patients and will work in close association with our supporting hospitals, Mallow General Hospital and the Cork City hospitals.”

A HSE spokeswoman said the facility had been in development since 2004 and was proving to be a major success.

“The people of Mallow and the surrounding areas have easier access to health services, closer to home, from a team of health professionals working together with better health outcomes,” she said.

The new facilities also allow GPs to develop specialist services for specific conditions such as sports injury, and for dermatology or minor surgeries, which were not available in the Mallow area previously.

The Minister for Health, James Reilly is due to open the centre later this week. In all, some 200 other primary care centres were due to open under the previous government’s health strategy.

The new programme for government drawn up by the coalition partners does not set figures for the creation of primary care centres, but it does pledge to establish an integrated system of primary and hospital care.

It states that GPs will be obliged to register with a primary care team once its new “universal primary care system” is fully implemented.

Carl O'Brien

Carl O'Brien

Carl O'Brien is Education Editor of The Irish Times. He was previously chief reporter and social affairs correspondent