Martin Browne (Tipperary, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am confident that the management will do all it can to maintain the existing levels of service there. It is committed to advocating for the community locally and for the service demands to meet people's needs. We need, however, to hear the same commitment come back from the Government on this. The Minister mentioned primary care centres. I have brought up several times here, as we have brought up locally, the matter of primary care centres trying to get doctors into them in the first place. I had a case recently in which a woman went to a primary care centre at 4.30 p.m. only to be told, "No, we finish at half four because we are out the door at five." That is no good. Unless these primary care centres are up and running properly, it will always add pressure to the accident and emergency departments.

To conclude on this, the hospital has also acknowledged to me that the recruitment freeze has the potential to have a negative impact on patient care. The Minister himself spoke about how well they have been working. The longer the freeze and the more money the Department takes out of the system - and the recruitment freeze itself is adding pressure on the system as it is - the more likely it is at some stage to collapse. How does a recruitment freeze on healthcare workers in the community square with the role of taking pressure off our emergency department?

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