€25 million primary care health centre for Mallow

A NEW €25 million state-of-the art primary care health centre opens it doors to people in Mallow today.

Mallow Primary Healthcare Centre (MPHC) will amalgamate the town’s Medical Centre, The Red House Family Practice and the Cork Road Clinic and all 17 GPs and eight practice nurses from these practices will move into the new building.

It will also house a number of HSE services which will move into the complex in the next six weeks.

A total of 50 HSE employees are to relocate there. They will oversee several functions including medical card administration, social work, speech and language therapy and occupational therapy.

MPHC, which has been in development since 2004, will also include the services of an acupuncturist, an optician and a pharmacy.

In addition, the HSE will bring a number of its key services to the MPHC, which means that local patients will have access to the largest range of primary care, health and social services currently under one roof in Ireland.

Each of the GP practices which are relocating to the MPHC will remain independent, with their own separate clinics within the building.

“With the opening of the centre, we can offer patients the comfort and reassurance of working with their own doctors and primary care teams, but in a specifically designed, modern space,” said Dr David Molony of the Red House Family Practice and a member of the executive management group which worked on behalf of their respective practices to develop the primary care centre.

“Where the patients will really benefit, however, is in the MPHC team’s dedication to developing and offering better services.

“MPHC will bring primary care in Mallow to a whole new level,” added Dr Harry Casey, of the Medical Centre.

“The new modern facilities will allow all the GPs, as a group, to continue developing specialisms and practices for specific conditions such as sports injury, dermatology or minor surgeries, which weren’t available in Mallow before this,” said Dr Tony Heffernan, the Cork Road Clinic’s executive management group representative.