SHANNONDOC treated a record number of patients over the Christmas holiday period, with almost 5,000 people seeking help in the seven days of Christmas week.
Figures from the out-of-hours urgent care service show that there were 4,752 patient contacts with the Mid West service between December 23 and 30, an increase of 50 per cent on the same time in 2023.
4,614 people were given a consultation with a GP, a 50 per cent increase on the 3,040 in same period in 2023. Staff worked 2,300 hours over the seven days to facilitate sick patients.
An extra 20 per cent of GPs, nurses, and other staff were rostered, resulting in an extra 450 hours of work for staff.
The service recorded high volumes of community sickness and patients needing care over the entire period, right up until January 12 and representing an overall increase of 32 per cent when compared to the same three week period last year.
Shannondoc CEO Peter Clarke said that the service was “a level of community sickness that we haven’t seen for two years but we prepared well for it”.
The CEO said that staff showed “great resilience and commitment in the face of the surge and we are all grateful to them for that”.
He added that he was aware that some callers had difficulty getting through on the phone but added that this was “due to the throughput”.
“We have a service level agreement with the HSE that provides for us to respond to all contacts within a six-hour period and we did that”.
