Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

GPs are contracted under the general medical services, GMS, scheme to make arrangements for their patients to be able to make contact outside of normal practice hours. Commonly, GPs are working with co-operatives to do this. SouthDoc is an excellent service, which provides an important service to people in counties Kerry and Cork. I acknowledge the commitment of the nurses, doctors and other staff providing urgent out-of-hours care in Cork and Kerry, as well as those who are working with GP out-of-hours services throughout the country.

Nevertheless, I recognise what is implicit in the Deputy's question, namely, that coverage is not perfect and there are concerns. I know, for example, that around Castletownbere there are difficulties in recruiting locum doctors. Sometimes that means that patients have to travel further than is ideal for the use of SouthDoc services. I am also aware of concerns about provision in Fermoy, although I am assured that there are no plans to change the service there. I think there are some local concerns that there will be a diminution of the service.

SouthDoc is a private entity which has more than 500 GPs, 26 treatment centres and 19 vehicles. To address the Deputy's question, as a private entity, it is up to SouthDoc to hire as many GPs as it can. There is, however, more we can do. At the IMO conference in Killarney, some doctors involved in out-of-hours services asked me to convene a national forum on out-of-hours services so they can come together to share what is and is not working. We are now kicking off the strategic review and out-of-hours services will be part of that. Some parts of the country are receiving an excellent service. In some parts of the country, services are finding it difficult to recruit. In some parts of the country, to be honest, the services are probably run in a more productive manner than in others. We want to ensure we have consistently good coverage across the country.

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