Almost 6600 calls made to NowDoc in Donegal last month

 

It’s been revealed that almost 6600 calls were made to NowDoc in Donegal last month with Christmas week the busiest period.
The service, which is a partnership between the GP members of Caredoc and the HSE, provides an urgent GP family Doctor service to patients of GP members in Donegal and south Leitrim.
On completion of the nursing triage process, a clinical decision will be made regarding the appropriate level of care, as patients can be seen by a GP in one of the main treatment centres, located at Letterkenny, Carndonagh, Mountcharles, Derrybeg and Carrick-on-Shannon.
All consultations in the NoWDOC service are by appointment only, and the location of the centre which the patient will attend, is agreed in advance, with the patient, during the process.
Some 6563 calls were received by the NoWDOC service in the month of December, reflecting a decrease of 12% on the same period in 2018.
Approximately 70% of all calls received a GP consultation and/or treatment in one of the centres or at home, whereas the remaining 30% received either nursing or GP telephone advice.
As predicted, the recent Christmas/New Year holiday period proved to be an extremely busy period for the service as it received and dealt with 3559 calls between December 23rd 2019 and January 5th.