IRELAND’S first multi-purpose private medical Urgent Care Unit has gone from strength to strength in Letterkenny since opening its doors to patients for the first time in March.
Its eight-strong medical team are now seeing 1,000 patients a week and they offer a range of medical services above what the NowDoc service can offer and below what the Emergency department offer.
One of the huge advantages of the new service is that they open from 10am until 8pm seven days a week.
They offer walk-in treatment and appointments by phone and online.
The facility can treat medical card patients but they will have to pay for this private service.
Dr Mohamed Elbiraier and Dr Ripu D Singh are the co-founders, who with another three doctors, two receptionists and two administrators provide care ranging from minor injuries, bloods, remove foreign objects from eyes and ears, aesthetic procedures and help visitors with prescriptions.
They also have a Consultant Urologist and a Specialist Cardiac Physiologist – Holter Monitor Analysis.
The founding doctors met while working between Letterkenny University Hospital Emergency Department and providing cover in the NowDoc service.
Speaking to the Donegal News, Dr Elbiraier explained that it was while helping out at NowDoc that he and Dr Singh met and saw the gap in the market for an urgent care unit. They did not anticipate the new practice would grow so quickly.
“We began with no patients and now have more than 6,000. We would see more than 1,000 patients a week now.
“The practice also treats minor injuries, does sutures, remove cysts and moles. In an emergency we can take foreign bodies from the eyes or ears. We are here for people who perhaps cannot get a doctor appointment, people visiting the area or has lost medication. We can send a prescription anywhere in Ireland,” Dr Elbiraier added.
He has worked in Donegal since 2008 as a GP in Dunkineely, Lettermacaward, Fintown, Donegal Town and Letterkenny and in the hospital and its Emergency Department.
Each appointment lasts 30 minutes and all patients are treated by a doctor. It costs €100 but that includes a follow-up appointment at no cost.
Their services include a Consultant Urologist, a Specialist Cardiac Physiologist – Holter Monitor Analysis and a Consultant in Anaesthesia and Pain Medicine.
Other Consultant appointments can be organised within a week.
Another service which will be provided shortly will be that of a dentist.
Future plans include the establishment of a second Urgent Care Unit in Donegal Town.
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