Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I apologise to the Ministers for not being here earlier as I was at another committee meeting but I was following this meeting online. I wish to put several questions and I will put the first to the Minister, Deputy Donnelly. In Clare and the wider mid-west, encompassing Limerick, we have Shannon Doc, an out-of-hours GP service operating out of five centres. It is a vital service and all the more vital during the Covid pandemic, as the Minister will appreciate. To use Shannon Doc's own language, it has moved to a “consolidated model” during Covid and there is a lot of very nice terminology, but what it really means is that, on the ground, there has effectively been a diminution of service. People have to go further afield to get to a clinic or they have to phone up the triage nurse and wait a long time for a call back, not because of anyone’s fault but because the service is overwhelmed with phone calls. People are not as inclined to go to acute hospitals because there is fear, some of which is grounded and some of which is illogical. However, while Shannon Doc has never been busier, there seems to have been a diminution of service. I would like to know how the Department can support out-of-hours GP services over the coming months and in the longer term as this is crucial.

I am fortunate to live in south Clare where, if anything were to happen in my home, we are probably a 15-minute drive or less to University Hospital Limerick. However, for people in the northern and western extremities of the county, it is a long drive and could be up to an hour and a half for them to get to accident and emergency or critical care.

They rely on having an out-of-hours GP service that they can contact at midnight or 1 a.m. to properly advise them on a health issue in their home.