On Monday Minister for Primary Care Alex White TD met management and staff at Mallow Primary Health Centre (MPHC) who briefed him about medical and ancillary services as well as research programmes that are currently ongoing, on site and in tandem with UCC. Minister White’s visit was part of a day-long visit to North Cork, at the invitation of Minister Sherlock, during which he also met staff and management at Living Health in Mitchelstown and representatives from UCC who are co-ordinating research and innovation projects through both health centres. Speaking during a tour of MPHC Minister Sherlock explained the reason behind his invitation to Minister White to the region, “In my role as Minis-ter I have been liaising with Living Health, MPHC, and UCC with regard to innova-tive projects they have been developing, co-ordinating and piloting. I felt that this was the perfect time for Minister White to appraise first-hand how these projects can now be expanded upon.”

Following extensive tours of both facilities, a presentation was made to Minister White by Carl Beame and Dr David Moloney, co-founders of CompleteGP, a hugely successful electronic medical recording system, which was developed in MPHC. This was followed by a present-ation from Colman Casey, Director of Research and Industrial Liaison at UCC and Interim Director at Health Innovation Hub, del-ineating the current research programmes in the area of health-related commercial-isation that are under way through the Health Innovation Hub at present.

Following the visit, Conor Healy, Managing Director of Mallow Primary Healthcare Centre, said, “MPHC was delighted to welcome Ministers Alex White and Sean Sherlock to view the significant progress that has been made to improve service to patients in the Mallow area. This has been done through the provision of 25 new services such as ultrasound, podiatry and physiotherapy, to name but a few, under the same roof as general practice and HSE services. MPHC has extensive research and educational links with UCC, UL and CIT and this has been further strengthened by our association with the Health Innovation Hub.”