James O'Connor (Cork East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The SouthDoc service in my area spans the five Dáil constituencies of County Cork and the whole administrative area of County Kerry. We have seen significant challenges with SouthDoc services and they have come down to doctor shortages. Whistleblowers in SouthDoc have described problems relating to doctors not wanting to take shifts over weekends that may be in some way awkward. There has been a reduction in the availability of the car service and bases are being impacted as well. In Fermoy, there has been significant discussion and dialogue on the future of the SouthDoc base and concerns are also now erupting in Midleton, County Cork. Previously, this happened in Blackpool, Cork city, and there was much discussion about it at that stage.

It has been deeply concerning, as a public representative, to see these services not being provided despite millions of euro in Exchequer funding through the witnesses' organisation. We discussed earlier the billions of euro that are being provided to agency workers, staff and organisations by the HSE, but the service SouthDoc is providing and what it is being funded for is in no way reflective of the sums it receives. I have heard many cases, without going into detail, of people who have been left out on a limb, unable to access a GP service when it was most critically needed, often resulting in them having to go to Cork University Hospital, CUH, which is a deep concern.

Is the service SouthDoc is providing something the HSE can commit to looking at? I know out-of-hour GP services nationwide are having challenges but, as a Deputy for Cork East but more so for the entire region for which SouthDoc has responsibility, what is going on at the moment is deeply unacceptable. It smacks of trying to close bases, which, unfortunately, will have a huge impact on our area, and it is a service people throughout County Cork have cherished for good reason. I will start with that question before I move on.