LIVINGHEALTH CLINIC OFFICIALLY OPENED IN MITCHELSTOWN
Foreign Affairs Minister Micheal Martin TD officially opened the new Livinghealth Clinic in Mitchelstown last Friday. The minister toured the new €10million 30,000sq.ft. state-of-the-art facility which now houses all of Mitchelstown’s GPs under one roof.
The Livinghealth Clinic was founded and developed by six local General Practitioners: Dr Tom O’Callaghan, Dr Brian Carr, Dr Jack Griffin, Dr Elma Gaffney, Dr Delcan Herlihy and Dr Frank O’Connor.
The clinic currently employs 40 people. Plans are in hand for this number to increase to 80 full and part-time positions once all hospital consultants and ancillary healthcare service providers are in place.
Dr Tom O’Callaghan, clinical director told The Avondhu, “We are delighted to welcome the minister and guests to the Livinghealth Clinic today. We are very pleased by the strong sense of community ownership of the clinic and the many new services it brings.
"There is also palpable excitement amongst the medical community with both our GP colleagues and hospital consultants who see this model as the way forward for Irish healthcare with better patient outcomes, lower costs and higher levels of patient satisfaction.”
Minister Martin said, “I love the vision here and the desire to expand even further particularly in the area of education, the community can only benefit from this wonderful facility. I would like to wish everyone involved continued success for the future.”
The Livinghealth Clinic has teamed up with the Mercy University Hospital Radiology Group in Cork to provide a radiology service, with x-ray, ultrasound and bone density scanning facilities and same day reporting via internet access to the Mercy Hospital.
Under the guidance of Professor Geraldine McCarthy, Department of Nursing at UCC, new nursing services will be developed at the Livinghealth Clinic, including a new clinical nurse specialist in Diabetes Care / Lecturer position in the Department of Nursing at UCC, the first of its kind in Ireland.
From this, research and development into pathways of care for chronic disease management will be developed. A health screening unit and a full compliment of ancillary health care professionals including physiotherapy, speech and language therapy, dietetics, psychology, counseling and podiatry are also provided.
South Doc the regional out of hours service will also operate from Livinghealth Clinic.
Published:
Thursday 5th February 5:26pm
