Greetings to all; my name is Dr Jaime Bendeck and I am a doctor at the Irish Town Clinic. In my career, I have worked for ‘Doctors Without Borders’ (Médicos Sin Fronters-MSF) in some twenty countries. I mention this because the way that this organization acts with patients, has marked my way of working.
MSF is known for its emergency and disaster response, but it is also a Public Health organization. This means that it focuses on preventive medicine. This implies that as part of my work, I carry out ‘Well Woman’ and ‘Well Man’ check-ups. And this means that I will see you when you are feeling well, and I will keep you well over the years. In other words, why would I want to see you when you are ill, if I can see you when you are well and keep you that way?
With these check-ups, we will pick up diabetes, hypertension, coronary disease risk factors, stroke risk factors, kidney disease risk factors with years before the symptoms become evident. A number of the long term diseases are silent in the first few years and when the symptoms do flourish, I will have to start you on long term medicine; and this when it all could be avoided.
The process is done only with a blood test and an electrocardiogram. Once these have been done, you are asked to come to see me again so that we can go over, line by line, each of the results.
I do like the Chinese saying: ‘You know a good doctor, because the waiting room is empty’. Of course, if my waiting room were full of ill people, then I am not doing my job. I am not keeping my patients from falling ill in the first place. Prevention is better than cure. The aim of the Wellness clinics, is that I will keep you living WELL:
Irish Town Clinic is situated at 47 Irish Town, Tel: (+350) 200 69991; email: irishtownclinic@gmail.com
