Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I have been around long enough to recognise a box-ticking exercise. With no disrespect to those who were present at the meeting, it was a box-ticking exercise. The reason the meeting took place was that Deputy Pringle and I, among others, including the public, were raising concerns in the media for a number of weeks in relation to NowDoc. We had a structured, normal quarterly meeting with the HSE at which this item was on the agenda. We were then told this was part of the consultation. Does the Minister know that in 2011 NowDoc made the very same proposal to the HSE? The HSE then appointed a three-person panel to review the safety of the proposal and that panel rejected it on safety grounds. I got a letter from the HSE saying that when the GPs agreed their proposal with Caredoc, it would be independently assessed on a health basis. I asked the acting HSE manager who would carry out the review and was told that the meeting on Friday with us, the elected representatives, was part of that independent assessment. How the hell can I as a public representative assess the safety of reducing the NowDoc service from three doctors to two?

There are two things I ask the Minister to do. First, I ask him to clarify whether the HSE is providing any funds to fund GP cover out of hours anywhere in the country. Second, I ask the Minister to ensure that an independent safety audit is done in relation to the NowDoc proposal outside of the GPs, the clinical lead, Caredoc, and the HSE, who have been involved in that tripartite discussion since February.

See this speech in context