Dr Monique Risso, Specialist in Family Medicine, joins the Specialist Medical Clinic

Dr Monique Risso has been a General Practitioner for 9 years. She qualified from Leeds University Medical School and joined the Vocational Training Scheme for General Practitioners at Airedale General Hospital in Yorkshire, where she gained experience in Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Paediatrics, Accident and Emergency and Psychiatry, all essential to General Practice. She worked in Settle and Ilkley as a General Practitioner Registrar, before returning to Gibraltar. In Gibraltar she worked at the Primary Care Centre for seven years, providing General Practice services to the local community.
In 2010 she travelled to Sydney, Australia and Omaha, Nebraska to train in NaProTechnology and the Creighton Model FertilityCare System. NaProTechnology (Natural Procreative Technology) is a new women’s health science that monitors and maintains a woman’s reproductive and gynaecological health. It provides medical and surgical treatments that cooperate completely with the reproductive system, and has been extremely successful in the treatment of many infertility problems.

More information can be found at: Dr Risso’s website www.ladyofeuropefertilitycare.com
or www.fertilitycare.net/WhatisFCare2.htm

Dr Risso is pleased to be working alongside Dr Nerney in this exciting new venture to offer General Practice Services for all ages, at the Medical Specialist Clinic. This will include acute and chronic disease management, travel advice and vaccinations, well man and well woman checks. She will also be providing general woman health and reproductive services with NaPro Technology including fertility awareness, natural family planning, treatment of Pre Menstrual Syndrome, Ovarian Cysts, recurrent miscarriage, pre-menopausal management and infertility treatment, to name a few.

To make an appointment with Dr Risso at the specialist medical clinic or for more enquires please contact T +200 49999 or at reception@smg.gi

Specialist Medical Clinic joins MEDILINK

We are delighted to announce that we have joined the Medilink medical network and are now their PREFERRED PARTNER for the Gibraltar area. 

For more information on Medilink, please take a look at their website: www.medilinkspain.com

From the Archives! 2005 article about Gallbladder surgery in Gibraltar.

Keyhole gallbladder surgery in Gibraltar

The Gibraltar Health Authority says that as another further step in the expansion and improvement of the Healthcare Services. Four Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy Procedures (Keyhole surgery to remove the gallbladder) were performed in Gibraltar this past week. The GHA?s Surgical Team, was led by Mr David Deardon who was recently recruited second Consultant General Surgeon, and who completed the first four Laparoscopic Cholecystectomies successfully on 15th September at St Bernards Hospital. The following day all patients were well and mobilised with a view to discharge from hospital within a further 24 hours. The patients ranged in age from 12 to 36 years of age. ?It had been impossible to perform keyhole surgery locally in the old St Bernard?s due to the absence of the necessary equipment and expertise but all that has now changed," says the GHA. They add: "The second Consultant General Surgeon recently employed by the GHA has the training, medical skills and experience to carry out keyhole surgery and this, together with the recent acquisition by the GHA of the necessary equipment has made this major breakthrough possible. In the past when such operations were carried out in Gibraltar by traditional methods patients were usually required to spend an extended period of time of many days as an inpatient before being discharged. Full recovery would take several weeks." "As from now, when such operations are carried out using keyhole surgery, it will mean that the patient can normally expect to be up and about the day after surgery and to leave Hospital some 24 hours later. It will also mean that patients will no longer need to travel away from Gibraltar to have such operations done elsewhere and thus avoid all the inconvenience and expense to patients and their families that this entails," says the GHA.

Benjamin Hassan joins the SMC team.

We are delighted to welcome Benjamin Hassan to the clinic team!

Benjamin Hassan, Gibraltarian born, is a psychotherapist with a particular interest and specialization in medical trauma psychotherapy.  Benjamin has extensive experience of working for the National Health Service in United Kingdom having held the post of Senior Psychotherapist. In this post he was responsible for the service delivery and development of the Psychotherapy Department with the lead Consultant at Kings College Hospital London. He worked very closely with many of the staff and patients in the departments of psychological medicine, neurology, palliative care, transplantation, accident and emergency, stroke, rehabilitation, dementia, amputees, sexual clinics and many others. Benjamin went on to lecture nationally and internationally on aspects of medical conditions and their psychological impact on the life cycle.

More recently, Benjamin worked for the UNITED NATIONS under the office of the high Commissioner for Refugees. His role was to assess and implement Psychological services for African Refugees in Israel. During this time, Benjamin developed specific clinics, seeing patients and managing the clinicians working in areas that ranged from immediate crisis intervention, psychological first aid, sexual and gender base violence, psychosomatic and post traumatic stress disorder. In the two years that Benjamin served as Project Manager for psychological and mental health services for the UNHCR in Israel, he obtained further support from the European Union and acknowledgement for his creative and professional work in the field of trauma and medical psychological care in humanitarian settings. Outside of public service, Benjamin has been working in private practice and continues to be involved with other colleagues in clinical research in the field of trauma and the impact of terminal medical diagnosis on the lifecycle.

 In the spring of this year, Benjamin returned to Gibraltar to join our practice and return home. Having the opportunity to work in such dynamic settings and gain a broad wealth of experience he feels it is the right time to return and start using what he has gained abroad and bring it to his own people here on the Rock.  He strongly believes, having kept informed of the development of psychological and mental health services in Gibraltar that it is progressing in the right direction, with many allied professionals such as counsellors and psychologists offering good services. It is however in his opinion important that in such a community specialist confidential psychotherapeutic services particularly in the area of medical psychotherapy exist.  He explains that Gibraltar is a wonderful community where people look out for one another. There is an assumption that people do not suffer in silence and that there is always a friend, lover or another with whom they can confide and find support. This is very important, however not always enough, particularly for those situations in life when an individual finds that they are asking themselves the same questions and feeling that things have a grip on them.  In the case of individuals with mental health issues or specifically anyone experiencing unmanageable levels of anxiety, there really is no need to struggle with these alone. Professional psychotherapists and other clinicians have developed understanding to work with these areas and facilitate the development of stronger resilience with these struggles. Most closely to Benjamin heart and in his words  he “has had the privilege to work with many ordinary individuals and family members who have had the misfortunate of being diagnosed with life changing diseases” and offer them professional attention in finding ways to manage the impact this has on their living. His clinics are carefully informed by a strong background in a broad range of fields and designed to meet his patient’s needs.

Benjamin believes that everyone in Gibraltar and anywhere else needs to know that there exists an open space where they can bring questions that are replaying in their minds and be with another with whom you can think the unthinkable and speak the unspeakable.  

To make an appointment to meet with Benjamin at the specialist medical clinic or for more enquires please contact T +200 49999 or at reception@smg.gi

Dr Patrick Nerney, MRCGP, Specialist in Family Medicine, joins the Specialist Medical Clinic

The Specialist Medical Group Ltd is delighted to announce that one of Gibraltar’s most senior General Practitioners, Dr Patrick Nerney MBBCh, (formerly a General Practitioner at the GHA Primary Care Centre in the ICC) has dusted off his stethoscope, after a couple of months of well deserved rest and relaxation, and joined the specialist team at the Specialist Medical Clinic. 

Dr Nerney, who is well known to many in Gibraltar, has been a GP for 32 years. He qualified as a doctor from Welsh Medical School at Cardiff University and gained hospital experience in Paediatrics,  Geriatrics, Psychiatry, Obstetrics and Gynaecology and Traumatology before chosing a career in General Practice initially in South Wales. He moved to Gibraltar in 1980 to become a general Practitioner in the Gibraltar health Authority. Between 2002 and 2007 he was the Primary Care Co-ordinator for the GHA and from 2009 until his retirement earlier this year was one of the lead GPs in the Primary Care Centre. 

Over the years Dr Nerney has become well known to many patients in Gibraltar. Within the Specialist Medical Clinic, he will be providing Specialist Family Medicine services for adults and children, including acute illness diagnosis and management, vaccinations, chronic disease management, sexually transmitted disease, travel vaccinations and well man and well woman checks. He will also continue to offer musculo-skeletal medical expertise for sports injuries and inflammatory musculo-skeletal conditions.  

Initially Dr Nerney will be available for consultation Monday to Friday between 10.00am – 01.00pm each morning. There will be a choice of short (15 minute) or long (30 minute) consultations.

Mr David Deardon, Specialist Surgeon and Managing Director of the Specialist Medical Group said “over the last 12 months we have experienced an increasing demand for family medicine services within our clinic, and it was therefore a delight when Dr Nerney asked to join our practice. His arrival brings to our clinic a wealth of clinical experience and leads the way for the clinic to expand the services we offer to include emergency and routine family medicine, providing patients with the option to receive a same day emergency illness service”.  

To book an appointment or for any further information, please contact the Specialist Medical Clinic team on 00 350 2004 9999, or e-mail to info@specialistmedicalclinic.com.

An interesting article in the Daily Mail on Gastric Balloons.

Some of our previous adverts