Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein)

I thank the Minister of State for being here to discuss the Topical Issue concerning the need for primary care services for my constituency of Dublin Fingal West which is, as I am sure the Minister of State is aware, one of the fastest growing constituencies in this State. We also have a very young profile; we do not necessarily fit with the profile of the rest of this State.

There is no hospital in my constituency to be fighting about but equally, there is a real, serious lack of primary care services. When the people in my constituency need to access the health service, they must leave. If they need a hospital or the services provided by a hospital, they must leave. They travel to Drogheda, to Beaumont, to James Connolly memorial hospital or the Mater but they must leave. They cannot get those services in our area. At least once a week on the social media forums such as Balbriggan Connected or Skerries Connected or in Rush, Lusk and the surrounding areas, somebody will post into the group asking if anyone knows of any GP who is either taking patients or taking patients with a medical card. There then begins a succession of replies advising people that no, there are no GPs in the area, or even if you have a GP in the area, you will wait for days and in some cases weeks to see the same GP.

The Government talks a lot about Sláintecare and has done precious little about it. I sat on the future of healthcare committee and I remember the lofty plans. It was adopted by almost every party in here but it falls to the Government to implement it and it has badly fallen short. Nowhere is that more evident than in my own constituency. We have a primary care centre in Balbriggan that was set up on the back of what was generally regarded not just by me but in the media as a political stroke. We wonder sometimes in north County Dublin if perhaps the origins of our primary care centre is the reason why it is so neglected. The HSE will say it is operating at full capacity but it has 27 vacancies waiting to be filled. It has also been confirmed to me that there are no immediate plans to develop phlebotomy, X-ray or diagnostic services in Balbriggan Primary Care Centre. If the Government is not going to put it into Balbriggan, which is the biggest population centre in my constituency, where is it going to put it? Alternatively, is the message to my constituents a simple one: they must wait and if they require simple services like an X-ray or diagnostics, they must travel outside the area? That is not good. It is not good for patients and it certainly is not good for my constituents. It makes a mockery of the commitments given under Sláintecare.

Some years ago, I submitted a box full of petition postcards to the former Minister for Health, Deputy Harris - I think I did the same when Stephen Donnelly was Minister for Health - requesting access to diagnostic services within my constituency. Rooms lie idle in a primary care centre while people are travelling miles to get simple services that should be available to them in their own community. In this day and age, with all the commitments the Government has given and all the fine words it has said regarding Sláintecare, it should not be too much to ask that we have proper primary care services within my constituency of Dublin Fingal West to serve people living in towns like Rush, Lusk, Skerries, Balbriggan, Oldtown and all across north County Dublin. As I said, the absence of these services means my constituents must travel miles for very simple, basic healthcare services.

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