Kathleen Funchion (Carlow-Kilkenny, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am delighted to get the chance to speak on this motion because I find increasingly that people who cannot access a GP are calling in to us. In many cases, they have been living abroad or in another part of the country and when they come home they find it impossible to access a GP. In one recent case, a person with a very serious condition who had been living in England for a long period had to come home for health reasons and then could not access a GP. Similar to the story Deputy Doherty told, they then cannot get into the hospital-based consultant service they need because everything is based on a GP referral. We know that often when people cannot access a GP they present at the emergency room. Obviously this puts pressure on that system. To be fair to people, in certain cases they do not know what else to do. Particularly in the case of a sick child, nobody is going to take any chances. It is a vicious circle effect. One of the key issues raised in the motion relates to the pharmacy first approach. We need to explore this much more because there are so many services that our pharmacists could offer. We underutilise the pharmacy service. Many people have built up a good and strong relationship with their local pharmacist. I hear that people often go to their pharmacist because they cannot get to see a GP. This puts the pharmacist in a difficult position at times. However, people really are getting desperate. It is difficult to understand that we are talking about people accessing basic healthcare, such as a GP service, but it is becoming a huge problem.

The motion also proposes some good solutions in relation to community and nursing home beds. For decades, we provided great convalescent services in this country but we have seen those dwindle in recent years. That is one of the reasons so many people get stuck in the hospital system. While I am glad to hear the Government is supporting the motion, we need to see these measures implemented.

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