Donna McGettigan (Clare, Sinn Fein)

We are facing a shortage of GPs. People in County Clare have contacted me to state that when their doctor or GP retired, they were left with no GP as they did not have a medical card and they are now reliant on walk-in clinics. People with a medical card have been assigned to already overburdened GPs when their GP retired. People cannot get appointments to see their doctors, leaving them with no choice but to head to accident and emergency departments. Some have to go to walk-in clinics and pay a fee as the walk-in clinics do not accept medical cards.

Some have to borrow money to go to walk-in clinics and others have to make the awful choice to hope for the best and wish for their issues to go away, but usually end up in accident and emergency departments. What can be done to increase the number of doctors working in underserved areas? What is being done to attract, recruit and retain doctors, especially those who are trained here, and make them feel they are welcome and do not need to emigrate due to a lack of housing or the cost of living?

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