The purpose of the test is generally to try and prove a negative rather than detect a positive. In other words, if someone is a close contact of a positive case, then they would be in the HSE system and it would be preferable for them to go through that. Just from an assurance point of view, the machine will test for positive and has done so. It is important to be aware that it can take 14 days for a person to test positive when having been in close contact with a positive case. The average duration is, however, 5 days.

Appointments are generally available outside of pharmacy hours. The patient needs to fill in a consent form and the cost is €80.00

Christmas Opening Hours in Cloyne CarePlus Pharmacy

We hope to have a much brighter and more comfortable store at the end of the project.  We will be joining the CarePlus Franchise but it will still be the same owner and team.

We hope you will enjoy the final result!

Designed by Freepik

The service was set up after an elderly patient complained to pharmacist Dermot Twomey of the difficulties and stress that he experienced whilst traveling 45 minutes each way to attend a hospital-based clinic in Cork city for his condition.

Dermot researched the subject, underwent training under the supervision of Haematologist Dr Susan O’Shea and Cork University Hospital and followed that up with a Pharmacy Skillnet Course run by Dr Stephen Byrne at University College Cork.

In the short time that Dermot’s service has been available, 90 patients have availed of the service and not one patient has so far been referred to hospital due to inadequate control of their medication.

The service has been continuously appraised and modified since its inception and has always received top marks.

It has also undergone auditing by two final year research projects by UCC. Both found patient satisfaction to be 100% with the second demonstrating that service in a community pharmacy setting was more cost effective measured from both a patient and clinical point of view.

The results achieved, measured by Time in Therapeutic Range, were also better when compared to hospital clinics. TTR is a measure of anticoagulation control and ideally should be >60% over various time ranges. Cloyne Pharmacy has maintained standard far higher than this, which rather confirms that those being monitored have been very well managed in the pharmacy setting.

Cloyne Pharmacy provides the anticoagulation control service six days a week and has occasionally undertaken home visits for patients with mobility issues. Last September, the pharmacy received the Judges’ Special Award at the Quality in Care Anticoagulation Awards in London – the only pharmacy finalist and the only finalist from Ireland.

Interest has been show in the project from many professional quarters and Dermot has assisted Professor Byrne in running further courses on the subject, as well as presenting at Irish and international medical conferences.

At the request of Professor Michael Barry at the Centre for Pharmacoeconomics at St James Hospital, Dublin, Dermot Twomey has also put together a proposal as to how the service could be scaled up to run in more community pharmacies across Ireland.

In his view, anticoagulation is just one of a range of services that should be available through appropriately trained community pharmacies.

The collaboration between Dermot Twomey and all these eminent healthcare experts only underlines the fact that pharmacists are in a position to help decrease the costs of healthcare in Ireland whilst, at the same time, gaining an increase in confidence in their abilities from their patients.

On behalf of his team, Dermot Twomey said winning this award was the pinnacle of all the dedication they have placed in ensuring this sector of the community have access to enhanced care provision.

“Winning this award is fantastic regognition for the inspired work and professionalism of my team and the tremendous support of our collaborators and of course the community we serve. It will certainly help to raise the profile of what we are trying to achieve for our anticoagulant patients and will spur us on to achieve even greater things. The prestige of these Awards is recognised widely in the sector and is wonderful recognition.”

(From the Quality in Care website)

Community Pharmacy-based Anticoagulation Clinic
awarded to Cloyne Pharmacy

This is Ireland’s first and, so far, only community pharmacy-based anticoagulation clinic. Based in Cloyne, the clinic was borne out of a need for patients to have their INR monitored locally rather than face a commute of 45 minutes to the nearest hospital-based clinic. The team has worked with local hospitals and is able to provide care that is more cost-effective than that provided by the secondary care setting. Recently there has been much interest in the community pharmacy-based service from healthcare bodies in Ireland such as The Pharmacy Regulator, The Health Services Executive, The Pharmaceutical Society of Northern Ireland as well as the Centre for Pharmacoeconomics in Dublin.