Niamh Smyth (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Collins, for coming in this evening. I raise the matter of the reconfiguration of the North East Doctor on Call, NEDOC, service that we received correspondence about in June. This is worrying for my constituents as a reconfiguration is due to come into effect from 4 August. In other words, a change to the service will come into effect within a matter of weeks. This essentially means there is going to be a reduction in the service where out-of-hours care on a face-to-face basis will only be provided until 10.30 p.m. at night on weekdays and 10 p.m. at the weekends. I do not need to tell the Minister of State it is often at night-time or the weekend that things happen, accidents happen and people become sick and unwell.

This reconfiguration NEDOC is talking about is therefore of serious concern to my constituents in Cavan-Monaghan. From further reading of the correspondence we received from the service, this is not new news to the HSE. This is something that has been the plight of NEDOC that it has communicated to the HSE for some years. NEDOC has clearly outlined a lack of funding and a serious shortage of doctors as the reasons for this change and reconfiguration. The serious shortage of funding suggest there has been a lack of engagement from the HSE around this that has been ongoing for years. It must be said our doctors and GPs across Cavan-Monaghan have been under severe pressure, as they have been throughout the country. They have reacted and responded to Covid. They have reacted and responded to their patients with great care and compassion and have seen patients as much and as often as they could, despite the challenges Covid presented to them.

Our GPs are already overburdened and under pressure and their capacity is at maximum. To expect the local GPs to provide anything beyond the service at their practice is expecting far too much. We cannot expect them to be on call overnight or over the weekend and then to go in and provide the high-quality service they provide during the day. Up to now I understand locum GPs have been able to fill that gap but that is unsustainable.

I want to read a piece from a two-page letter from NEDOC that ultimately says it all. It states:

To have the support of these highly qualified doctors is essential to the provision of our service. We are constantly engaged in a recruitment programme for qualified doctors and successfully navigated the covid era as doctors became unavailable, however now the medical manpower market is so competitive that it is increasingly difficult to source doctors under the terms and conditions we can offer. In order to attract doctors to Ireland or retain the doctors that have already trained in Ireland, we need to be able to offer better terms and conditions and to do that we need HSE support which is not forthcoming.

I repeat - "is not forthcoming". That is the really disturbing part of all of that.

I am going to conclude because there is another piece to this, namely, I am also receiving correspondence from people who are living in the area who cannot even get a daytime GP service. I want to tell the Minister of State about Paul and Linda Greene. I received a letter from them that would break your heart. They moved to Emyvale from Mullingar at the end of January and are both nearing retirement age. They wrote to me out of absolute frustration because they cannot get a GP in Cavan or Monaghan. It has actually been suggested to them they should perhaps hold on to their GP in Mullingar, which would give them a 240 km round trip. That is farcical. Will the Minister of State give me some idea of how the Minister for Health and his Department are engaging with the HSE to address this issue?

See this speech in context