Thomas Gould (Cork North-Central, Sinn Fein)

Freedom of information documents I received in May show that on 18 March, the head of primary care services in the HSE South-West asked who approved the amalgamation of services that led to the closure of SouthDoc in Blackpool, but she got no response. I have asked the same question multiple times and I have got no response. A decision was made to close SouthDoc Blackpool and no one knows who made it and no one is willing to admit it. SouthDoc is being paid millions of euros every year to provide an out-of-hours service in the Kinsale Road and in Blackpool but Blackpool has been closed. I will provide some statistics so that the Minister of State knows I know what I am talking about. In January 2019, SouthDoc in Blackpool saw 2,180 patients. Does the Minister of State know how many it saw in January 2025? Zero. I have the HSE telling me it is not closed. The figures prove it is closed. I asked a question.

In 2021, the HSE advised that SouthDoc Blackpool needed to stay open to prevent people from going to accident and emergency because they could not make it out to the Kinsale Road. They would go to the Mercy Hospital or CUH, which are overcrowded already. When did the HSE change its policy? Who authorised that? The Minister of State is probably going to read out a speech. I do not want to hear any untruths or deception. I am looking for the facts. Who closed SouthDoc in Blackpool and when will it be reopened?

There is a service level agreement in place for millions of euro. Has an audit been done? Who has looked into the service being provided? Are the people getting the service they pay for? This is being paid for. Children are travelling in taxis through the night right across the city, passing the door of Blackpool. A lady from Ballyvolane contacted me to say that she came down Dublin Hill. One minute out the road was Blackpool but instead of going there, she had to cross the whole city. I met a taxi driver from Gurranabraher. He said he met a family, a mother with two sick kids, who had got a taxi out that cost her €40. To be fair to the taxi driver, he brought her home because he knew the woman did not have it. That is not good enough.

The HSE has bottled it. It has buckled and is allowing SouthDoc to make millions of euro and not do its job. I want the truth tonight. I do not want false claims from the HSE. I am sick and tired of the people of the northside being treated like this. Why can we not have a proper health service like everyone else? Why is the northside always being cut? The ambulance service and the orthopaedic service were taken out of the St. Mary's campus. The new hospital for Glanmire has been delayed for years. The primary care centres in Glanmire, Mayfield and Blarney are all delayed and we do not know when they are coming. The one piece of the health service we have on the northside is closed and the HSE is trying to tell me that it is not.

I am asking for answers. I am looking for the truth. I have to go back to Cork and tell the people why the Government is not delivering the out-of-hours care the people of the northside deserve.

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