11^th July 2007

New Out of Hours Centre for Downdoc

The Downdoc service, which covers out of hours calls to GPs throughout the East Down area, has a new home!

The service moves on 24^th July to a new temporary building at the rear of the Downe Hospital, near the Annexe.

“Calls will still be handled in the normal way, using the same number, by the call centre,” explains Florence Graham, who manages the service. “The only difference will be that if you are asked to come in to the Out of Hours Centre, you will be coming to the new building instead of our old premises in Pound Lane Clinic.  By moving out to our own building, we now have four consulting rooms for doctors and two rooms for nurses.  The building will be in use all day every day as specialised nurses will be using the premises during the normal working day.

Signage has gone up re-directing patients to the new centre and fliers have been circulated to all local GP surgeries. The centre is signed from the Ardglass Road out of Downpatrick and has its own car parking.

The out of hours GP service takes calls for GPs from 6pm to 8am Monday to Friday, and 24 hours on Saturdays, Sundays and bank holidays. 

The number to ring if you need a doctor in the East Down area (Downdoc) in an out of hours emergency is 028 9260 2204.

The number to ring if you need a doctor in the North Down & Ards area in an out of hours emergency is 028 9182 2344.

For more information contact Christina Martin 028 9250 1209 (Down Lisburn area) or Joan McCallan 028 9151 2208 (North Down & Ards, Castlereagh and East Belfast area)