One of the biggest primary healthcare centres in the country has been formally opened today in Ennis, Co Clare.
The Station Road primary care centre represents an investment of over €1 million offering integrated healthcare services including community doctor and diagnostic services including MRIs, physiotherapy, ophthalmic, dental, psychology and podiatry services.
The centre was formally opened today by Health Minister Stephan Donnelly and is one of 167 such primary care centres now operating across the country, offering a range of health services in one location, aimed at strengthening community healthcare and keeping people out of our acute hospitals.
It has been developed as part of the Government's national Enhanced Community Care programme, known as the ECC.
The four-storey building is the first such centre to be opened in Co Clare and is the largest facility of its kind anywhere in the mid-west region. It has been seeing patients since last December, and is serving a population of over 30,000 people in Ennis and its environs.
It includes a range of clinical, interview, group and diagnostic rooms and facilities have been developed so that it meets the highest infection control safety and sustainable energy standards.
"Primary Care Centres, like this one in Ennis, are integral to the expansion and reform of healthcare provision in our communities," Minister Donnelly said at the opening of the new centre.
"They represent the very real and substantial commitment to universal healthcare. Primary care centres are integral to moving care away from acute hospitals and we will continue to build this infrastructure and capacity to provide care as close to people's homes as possible," he said.
Maria Bridgeman, Chief Officer, HSE Mid West Community Healthcare added: "Station Road primary care centre represents one of the biggest investments in healthcare in Clare in many years. It enables our teams to work together in a cohesive fashion, under one roof, delivering the highest possible standard of care to the people of Ennis and surrounding areas," she said.
"While this is the first primary care centre to be developed in Co Clare, it is certainly not the last. In the coming years, we look forward to further enhancing Primary Care Services throughout the county through the delivery of more new Centres at Tulla Road, Ennis, as well as in Ennistymon and Sixmilebridge.
"The new centre has been developed as part of the national ECC programme which is already making progress, aiming to reduce pressure on services and dependence on the hospital-centric model of care through enhanced and increased community services and consultant-led specialist services in the community," Ms Bridgeman added.
"In the mid-west region, eight community healthcare networks have been established while specialist community teams will support older persons and those with chronic diseases across North Tipperary, Limerick and Clare.
Community Intervention Teams have also been established, operating from locations in Ennis, Limerick City, Newcastle West, Nenagh and from the new Thurles Primary Care Centre. The Community Intervention Team is firmly embedded in the Mid West with a focus on hospital avoidance and early supported discharge from the acute setting," she said.
All GPs throughout the mid-west region have increased direct access to community diagnostics for their patients, with over 7,200 scans being completed during the first five months of this year, as part of this network initiative.
