Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I know that the Minister of State, Deputy Finian McGrath, has done it because I have been told about it and it is very important. It is not that one is going in to stick one's nose into people's business, as all one needs to do is to observe what is happening. One is there in a helpful way, not to be obstructive or critical or anything like that. If a person knows what the problems are there on the ground, when he or she is up here, whether it is lobbying with people like the Minister of State or the other Ministers with responsibility for health, the public representative will know what he or she is talking about, which is very important.

Many GP practices have closed because their waiting lists will not allow them to take on any new patients and have been shut down. This is not because they do not want to but they quite simply cannot. The aging GP service is also an issue, as even the baby in the cradle is getting older by the day, and many GPs who are heading towards retirement are not being replaced new young GPs.

The community intervention teams are required all over the country. I have great faith in community intervention teams. The only problem is there is not enough of them deployed throughout the entire country, particularly in rural areas. Care is needed with early discharges from a general or even from a community hospital to take such people back into the communities. It is a welcome development if early discharges can be given, provided the person is sure of having the care he or she needs when they go home. More public health nurses are required to deliver primary care in their own areas.

On mental health and delivery of that service, the lack of a community psychiatric service is grave in communities and more services are required, especially where there is an age gap. If we have young people with psychiatric problems, sometimes they can fall between two stools in that there is no service available for them. They are neither here nor there. We have to ensure that whatever the age of a young person, there is a place for him or her. If the parents or close family of such young people feel, see or know that they are in trouble with psychiatric illness or problems, we must ensure there is at least some place for them to receive the care they need at that critical time.

One service that has developed throughout the country is what we might call pop-up private consultation services. I am not a great fan, quite simply because local GPs always have provided a continuity of care. If a pop-up service is there and if people can go in for a once-off consultation, where is the continuity of care with the original care provider? There may be misdiagnoses or different issues that may arise from those consultations. Nothing will ever beat the good patient-local GP relationship, where a person will have the same GP for many years. That GP then gets to know his or her patient in a very sound fashion. They get to know each other and can get a better outcome of healthcare for the person because of it.

As regards nurses, it is shame that we have a lack of nurses in places such as Dingle, County Kerry. It must be made more attractive for young nurses. We have great, intelligent young nurses who have been trained, are excellent and would provide a significant service, were they here in Ireland. Unfortunately, as they wanted to better themselves, they felt the rate of pay they would get here from the HSE would not be adequate and they left. They are over in England, in America and in Australia. I plead with the Minister of State, for the sake of those young people, to make it attractive for them to come home and to work, regardless of whether it is in Kenmare, Cahersiveen or Dingle community hospitals or in general hospitals like University Hospital Kerry or Cork University Hospital, which service the county or Limerick.

We do not want those jobs to be filled by temporary staff. We want them to be full-time care providers, nurses, doctors or community welfare nurses. They are the people on whom we will be relying.

I want to use my last bit of time to speak about the ambulance service. I could not commend ambulance personnel highly enough. They are the first people who are called out to the home of an elderly person or to the scene of an horrific accident on the side of the road. They are the backbone of first contact between the patient and the hospital and they should be supported by all of us.

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