Waterford GP means the business

Dr Eithne Brenner

Gary Culliton looks at how one Waterford GP has taken the business world by storm in the South East.

GPs are called on to perform many roles these days, but few embody this trend to the extent of Dr Eithne Brenner. Recently announced as the winner in the Best Entrepreneur/New Business Person of the Year category in the 3 Business Awards, in conjunction with Waterford Chamber of Commerce, Dr Brenner has accumulated a number of strings to her business bow since returning from the UK and becoming the Medical Director and owner of the Brenner Clinic, a multidisciplinary medical practice in Waterford City.

So how does a GP get in the running for such an accolade? The ICGP’s Network of Establishing GPs – which is available as a resource now – was just beginning when Dr Brenner returned from abroad in 2007. She had to negotiate all the legal pitfalls of company formation and familiarise herself with such regulatory requirements as access for people with disabilities.

She acquired her lease on a premises — which is located in Ardkeen, close to Waterford Regional Hospital — in June 2007 and opened for business in November of that year. The practice is mainly private, with a GP consultation typically costing €55. However, since July 2009, the practice has also had a GMS list encompassing 600 patients.

The practice, which is not a partnership, currently employs three full-time GPs and a full-time nurse practitioner. In total, there are 11 healthcare professionals working at the clinic. Dr Brenner plans to employ another GP and possibly a further practice nurse within the next six months.

United team
The clinic’s services also include counselling, psychotherapy and cardiac sports screening. Indeed, sports is a constant theme in Dr Brenner’s life. She is the team doctor for Waterford United Football Club and has a keen interest in health screening. The Brenner Clinic works with the GAA and the FAI to screen players — in particular for risk of sudden cardiac arrest — and offers a specially designed sports health screening package for all of Waterford’s hurling and football clubs.

“It’s no longer acceptable to have juveniles or senior players training and being pushed to the limits without medically sound information on all players’ body status,” Dr Brenner told Irish Medical Times.

All clubs in Waterford have signed up and committed to this programme and they have been issued with a special reference number available from the GAA Club secretary. A special rate has been agreed with the Waterford County Board. The Board also requested that it receive an update on all clubs participating.

Under the scheme, players between the ages of 11 and 17 receive an EEG, while body mass index, pulse rate and blood pressure are also assessed. A guide to nutrition aims to inform both the juvenile and his or her parents of the foods that they should be eating on a regular basis and, most importantly, before and after training or matches to maximise their performance and health.

Originally from Waterford City, Dr Brenner obtained her degree, with Honours in Psychiatry, at UCC in 1989. She interned at Cork University Hospital and completed four years of Specialist Family Medicine Training on the Cleveland Rotation. She then spent 10 years as a busy GP principal in a London city practice prior to her return to Ireland in 2007.

Despite returning home just before the economy slumped, she says the decline of the Celtic Tiger has not hurt the other company she runs — the Aesthetic Clinic Faceworks.

For some, it will be Dr Brenner’s voice rather than her face that will be most familiar to them. The GP has a regular spot on local radio and broadcasts twice monthly on WLRFM across the South East. She has also been involved for five years as a GP at the Sexual Assault and Treatment Unit (SATU) at Waterford Regional Hospital and has been called on to testify in court in this regard. She completed a Graduate Forensic Course (SAFE) in UCD in 2009.

Despite no formal business training during her professional formation, the Waterford GP certainly has caught the entrepreneurial bug, and has expanded her career in many diverse directions. Certainly a doctor more ‘pitch perfect’ than hurler on the ditch!