Practice Information
Our surgery operates an appointment system. Appointments can be made by telephone or at reception. You can help us to provide you with a better service by:
Making a separate appointment for each person attending
Letting us know the doctor of your choice. On occasions where the doctor of your choice is not available you may be asked to see another doctor.
Letting us know, when booking, if your visit is for a special service such as cervical smear, antenatal check-up, six week postnatal check-up, travel vaccinations, blood test or a full medical exam as special arrangements may need to be made for you.
Letting us know as soon as possible if you cannot attend for your appointment.
URGENT CASES WILL BE SEEN WITHOUT DELAY but you may be asked
details of the problem to assist this process.
HOME VISITS
Most medical issues are best dealt with in the surgery where we have all the appropriate equipment etc. There are surgery appointments allocated for emergencies each day. Requests for home visits should be made before 10.30am.
The doctors will not be able to take phone calls during surgery times, but you may leave a message with reception.
The nurse is available to take phone calls between 12 noon and 1.00pm.
REPEAT PRESCRIPTIONS
Repeat prescriptions are issued at the doctor’s discretion in line with the patient’s need for medical review of their condition. They are usually authorised at the time of the consultation. Please give 24 hours' notice to reception.
There is no “set fee”. Fees may be paid by credit/laser card, cheque or cash. The fee charged is in accordance with the consultation and whether extra patients, investigations, injections, smears or other diagnostic tests and treatment procedures are performed. PLEASE NOTE THAT NOT ALL SERVICES ARE COVERED BY MEDICAL CARDS. We can claim for some of our services directly from the major Health Insurance Schemes. Please check with reception for details.
All fees must be paid at the time of consultation. We do not keep accounts.
An itemised receipt is issued after each consultation. Please keep your receipts as copies of receipts, personal or family, carry an administration charge. All types of medical examination for certificates carry a fee, eg driving licences, school or college medicals or fitness to travel etc.
Many families are able to claim income tax relief from the Revenue Commissioners using the Med 1 form.
You may have blood tests or other laboratory samples taken at this surgery. These will be sent to the hospital laboratory and leaves the surgery every day at approximately 11.30am. It is our policy that:
We will add the results to your computerised file on their return
A doctor will ring or write to you directly on receipt of an important result that is outside the normal range or one that is significantly abnormal
As a routine practice, you are expected to ring the surgery for your results 10 days after the sample was taken
We request you to ring for these between 12 noon - 1.00pm Monday to Friday
In some cases your lab result may be required more urgently. The doctor/nurse will inform you when to ring for this urgent result.
Receptionists are authorised to give a result that the doctor has considered normal, to a patient on request
Receptionists are not authorised to give results that are outside the normal range. You will be asked to discuss these with a doctor
Very often, results outside the normal range are insignificant and not dangerous. Patients asked to discuss results with the doctor shouldn‘t worry unduly
We will not routinely contact you to inform you of a normal result.
Sometimes blood results get lost and delayed at the lab. We will follow these up and clarify the situation if your phone call indicates results are not back.
If you are unhappy about some aspect of the practice or your care please contact our practice manager as per our complaints procedure which is displayed in reception.
Anybody who is verbally or physically abusive or who acts in a threatening manner will be removed from the practice list.
The staff at The Village Surgery understand the importance of a personal, private and confidential service.
If there are any aspects of your care at the surgery that you are unhappy with, please let us know by informing a member of staff. We always try to keep to schedule; unfortunately, some problems take longer than expected. We appreciate your patience on these occasions.
OUR PRACTICE VISION IS TO PROVIDE THE MOST UP-TO-DATE MEDICAL CARE AT ALL TIMES, TO ALL PATIENTS, REGARDLESS OF A PATIENT’S AGE, BACKGROUND AND ETHNICITY.
