If you are planning an escape from the bad weather to some exotic destination, don’t forget to visit us for travel advice and vaccinations. At Kilmacud Medical Centre, we stock all of the common travel vaccinations and can provide you with information and advice on all of the common hazards of overseas travel. We subscribe to the Travax on line vaccination service so we are up to date with information on all of the latest infection out breaks across the world as well as region specific Malaria prophylaxis information. When you are booking a travel consultation, please let our reception staff know so that we can allocate you enough time to discuss your travel needs.

We are delighted to announce that our practice nurse Karen Canning won the coveted Irish Practice Nurse Of The Year Award at this year’s IPNA conference in Athlone last weekend. The award recognises the promotion of Practice Nursing as well as academic achievement, innovation, leadership and patient satisfaction. The specialty of Practice Nursing has made huge progress in Ireland over the past ten years and Karen has been at the forefront of this. She has been pivotal in the development of a continuing professional development by setting up the south Dublin branch of the IPNA  and the award recognises this and other achievements.

If you have visited our centre recently you will see  we are doing some building work. The plan is to completely renovate the entrance and the facade of the building to make it easier to access. While this work is being carried out, the entrance to the centre is through a door on the other side of the building. This entrance is well sign posted. Please accept our apologies for the disruption. We hope the building work will be complete in about four weeks.

The weather is fantastic at the moment and is expected to continue for at least another week. While the good weather might help everyone to feel better there are risks associated with extreme temperatures particularly for the young and old. The following tips might help you survive the hot temperatures and avoid heat stroke.

• Keep out of the sun between 11am and 3pm
• Use a sun screen and clothing to protect your skin from sunburn
• Drink plenty of cold fluids to protect against dehydration
• Avoid alcohol
• Avoid strenuous outdoor activity such as gardening, DIY or sports in the hot sun.

So finally we have a bit of sunshine and summer weather! While the sun is great for our mood and Vitamin D it also carries a risk of skin cancer. Currently there are over 9,000 new cases of skin cancer diagnosed in Ireland every year. Many of these can be traced back to unprotected sun exposure or the use of sun beds. Enjoy the sun while it lasts, but make sure to follow three simple rules to protect you and your family against skin cancer

1. SLIP on a shirt with long sleeves and a collar and wear long trousers when out in the sun for long periods.
2. SLAP on a hat to protect your head and neck. Ideally this should be a bucket or legionnaire style hat to protect your neck, ears and face.
3. SLOP on some sun block. This should be factor 15 or better and the bottle should display the standard UVA logo.

For more information on this topic visit the Irish Cancer Society website by clicking here. You can also watch this video to learn more about skin cancer and how to prevent it.