Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein)
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Many GPs did not come out well from this with the funding provision in Laois, Offaly and the other midlands counties. Deputy Burke is correct that GPs are under significant pressure, but they did not benefit in any way from this. The bottom line is that significant funding is going into the provision of our services. The problem is, as the Deputy outlined, that the services are patchy or there are difficulties in accessing them. In this case, on Christmas Eve, we ended up in a situation where there was a week’s notice this service would be gone. That was the first public heard about it. Meanwhile, the HSE has been scrambling since then. In fairness to the regional management in the HSE, it is my sense that they have been doing their very best to fill this gap, first on an interim basis to tide it over until 15 January. Now, they are in the process of trying to extend that by a couple of months. Beyond that, there is another-----