NowDOC dealt with over 4,000 calls over Christmas

The Donegal NowDOC service dealt with 4,070 calls between December 22nd 2017 and January 1st 2018.

The GP family doctor service, which provides urgent GP care to patients for patients in Donegal and south Leitrim, says that the Christmas and New Year holiday period has proved “extremely busy” as predicted.

There was a 3% increase in the number of calls received over the course of December 2017 in comparison to December 2016, with some 7,211 calls being received by NowDOC.

A spokesperson for the HSE says: “Approximately 70% of all calls received a GP consultation and/or treatment in one of our centres or at home, whereas the remaining 30% received nursing advice.

“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 our main treatment centres, located at Letterkenny, Carndonagh, Mountcharles, Derrybeg and Carrick-on-Shannon.

“HSE Management at NoWDOC GP out of Hours Service would like to sincerely thank all of our GPs and staff members for the excellent dedicated service provided over the 2017 Christmas and subsequent New Year holiday period.”