Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I accept that the Minister of State is here on behalf of the Minister for Health. I think she has been as frank as she could be. She touched on the nub of the issue when she spoke about GP contracts. She said that while this is a contracted service, GPs under this contract "must make suitable arrangements" to deal with out-of-hours services. I share the view of many people in the Clare constituency that the solution which has been arrived at is not suitable. The proposed arrangement is not fit for purpose, does not meet the needs of the community and does not ensure safe outcomes for patients who encounter issues like those I have already mentioned. I do not doubt that it will delay some patients in getting access to the treatment they need to save their lives. In other circumstances, it will delay people as they seek to present themselves to the medical system. Invariably, this will mean they end up in accident and emergency units. Some people will require hospital stays as a result of delays in getting to see doctors in the first instance. That is going to put more glue in the cogs of the health system in the mid-west.

I appeal to the Minister of State to go back to the Department to see whether the HSE will reject the proposal that has been made by the doctors. I was taken aback to discover that the HSE had accepted the proposal presented by the doctors. If the appropriate checks and balances had been put in place, and if the interests of the patients whom the doctors are supposed to serve had been taken into account, there is no way the HSE would have accepted this proposal.

In my view, they should have gone back to the general practitioners and the people who run this service and made the case that it was not acceptable, that it does not meet the needs and that it is not a suitable arrangement. Furthermore, they should have made the case that the Minister must put in place an appropriate service and work with them to find a suitable solution.

I appeal to the Minister of State to go back to the HSE, re-engage with the doctors and try to ensure we have a system that is fit for purpose, one that meets the needs of the patients and one to ensure that we do not further clog up the accident and emergency departments, which are under such extraordinary pressure at the moment.

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