Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I do not want to be disrespectful, but if the Minister for Health does not understand what is happening in the HSE in the context of SouthDoc in Blackpool, that is shocking.

Some €7 million was paid to SouthDoc to provide an out-of-hours service, which it is not doing. If the Minister of State looks at my Facebook page, he will see the number of constituents by whom I have contacted who cannot get appointments there. The only time someone can get in there is if the doctor is not on call. This means that at least 70% or 80% of the time, there is no doctor in Blackpool. I spoke to a person yesterday who contacted the Blackpool treatment centre at the weekend and was told that the doctor was making a house visit in Macroom. I have no problem if doctors need to go out to visit people in their homes. That service needs to be there, but what happened at the weekend meant that there was no doctor in Blackpool for the over 100,000 people who live on the north side of Cork city. People have informed me that they have to wait for hours.

I have seen the service level agreement agreed in 2020 by SouthDoc and the HSE. SouthDoc is not living up to its side of that agreement.

Last month, I asked the Tánaiste, Deputy Micheál Martin, a fellow Corkman, about this matter. He told me that he would contact the GP services and the HSE.

Does the Minister of State have any response from the Tánaiste regarding what he was told because Southdoc in Blackpool was not operational at the weekend?

I just want to let the Minister of State know that two more people contacted me to say the same happened to them in recent days. I have a story for him. A lady took her son, who had food poisoning, to SouthDoc on the Kinsale Road. The child was sick all the way out in the car and all the way back while SouthDoc in Blackpool across the road from her house was empty and closed. How can that be fair?

The Minister of State is a constituency colleague of mine. The north side is fed up of not getting a fair shake.

See this speech in context