Barry Cowen (Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I wish to raise the issue of the recent closure of MIDOC out-of-hours GP service facilities in Birr and Edenderry, which were closed earlier this month. I disagree with the substance of that decision and indeed the manner in which it was carried out. When the HSE informed the public it was abrupt, uncaring and showed a huge disregard for the local communities where these facilities were placed.

Since then, we have heard the HSE apologise for the communication of the decision but defend its substance, citing a review commissioned by the MIDOC services into issues surrounding security, clinical expertise and the one-person staffing of these facilities. The Minister of Health, Deputy Simon Harris, in response to a parliamentary question I put down last week, also supported the recommendations and ultimately the decision of the HSE based on that so-called independent review.

I think it is only right that we put this local decision in a national context. Two years ago, in the programme for Government the Minister of State at the Department of Health, Deputy Finian McGrath, and his colleagues pledged a decisive shift in health services towards primary care, with the delivery of enhanced primary care facilities in every community. As part of this, they said "we will focus on developing an enhanced primary care system, and guaranteeing the future sustainability of GP practices in rural Ireland." The programme for Government went on to say "We will reduce emergency department overcrowding following a four pronged approach", one aspect of which was "to reduce numbers coming into hospital by developing primary care services and integrating primary and secondary care services".

On top of this is the Sláintecare report, which the Minister of State and the Government support. This report also endorses the shift to primary care. The health service capacity review, published by the Minister earlier this year, projected that over the next 15 years there would be a 46% increase in primary care services. It could not be more clear to the Minister of State and his colleagues in government that we need more primary care services. Yet in Offaly, people are seeing the scope of primary care reduced with these closures in Birr and Edenderry.

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