Eugene Murphy (Roscommon-Galway, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It is fair to say that general practice is under pressure up and down the country. We have seen the protest from the doctors and the concern expressed. It is no different in the constituency of Roscommon-Galway. One general practitioner based in the constituency has been asked to take on additional patients, as many doctors have been, from the primary care reimbursement service, PCRS, panel appointments. Recent protests have highlighted the ongoing pressures being placed on GPs throughout the country. This particular GP in my constituency is unfortunately not unique. His practice is operating at full capacity and there is now a three-day waiting list for his surgery. His existing patients are deeply frustrated by the situation. Despite this, a number of additional patients have been assigned to him by the PCRS. His practice nurse has been on maternity leave since December and he is having serious difficulty in sourcing a full-time nurse and has not been successful to date. As a single-handed GP who also took patients from the emergency reception and orientation centre, EROC, in Ballaghaderreen, he should be excluded from patient appointments in his panel. He has been asked to take on new patients on a regular basis over the past two years due to a number of issues such as Brexit, people relocating to the west and people coming back to the area to work. There was already extraordinary pressure on this GP prior to the arrival of patients from Syria.

As for the EROC, despite the promises from the Government and the Department of Health, no new resources or funding were allocated to the Ballaghaderreen area to support the existing health services, and now we can see the fall-out. If this GP takes additional patients, they will more than likely end up being assigned to another GP after six months. GPs are entitled to ask for patients to be moved on if they cannot handle the situation. This would be very frustrating for the doctor and the patients, particularly in a place like Ballaghaderreen where a doctor and his staff genuinely took on the people from the EROC, gave a fantastic service to those people and continue to do so without any assistance from the Department. He is still not able to do it and he is totally frustrated. I have a copy of a letter from the HSE telling him that another family is coming. I am not going to give the details here but I have them on file if the Minister of State wants to see them. This is happening on a constant basis and it is not fair to him.

The doctor writes that the HSE contacted him last year to take on a family that was moving to the area from the Mosney centre and was being settled in the town of Ballaghaderreen. He says he was unhappy at the time due to the fact that this placed an even greater burden on the surgery but, once more, he accepted the new patients. He states that he thinks this is very unfair as there were already extraordinary pressures on the surgery prior to the arrival of the patients from Syria. He writes that his practice provided a GP service to those vulnerable patients and that it was the proper and Christian thing to do. That is what the GP wrote in a letter to me. It is clear that there was extraordinary goodwill to help less fortunate people. He never closed his door on them. However, when people now look to make an appointment, including patients who have been with him for years, in most cases he cannot take them until the following week. Where there are EROCs and direct provision centres and doctors are being asked to take on these extra patients, I ask that we do something for them because no back-up has been given to them.

See this speech in context