Seanad debates

Friday, 24 July 2020

Health (General Practitioner Service and Alteration of Criteria for Eligibility) Bill 2020: Second Stage

 

10:00 am

Photo of Mary Seery KearneyMary Seery Kearney (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister and wish him every success in his role. It is a daunting task to take on at any time, but particularly at this time, and I admire thus far how he has carried out the role and his presentation of the Bill, which I very much welcome.

As Senator Murphy said, the GP relationship is such an extraordinary one of trust, and possibly one of the last bastions of our society that is standing and held up in such great esteem.

I believe access to GP care is a fundamental right. That is my position, full stop, from a just society perspective. I am very excited about the trajectory that we are on with Sláintecare. It is an extraordinary journey and I look forward to a day when we have universal healthcare.

I am one of these parents. I have a five year old. It has been an extraordinary journey with her that we have always access. In my experience from constituency work, the feedback is that a floodgate did not open when under sixes were allowed free access to GP care and, consequently, I do not believe that. However, I accept we are in extraordinary times. I respect the Minister's position on that but urge him to give us an idea of timelines as quickly as he can.

On access, reflecting the Minister's positive words, early intervention and tackling inequality are fundamentally what this is about. In that regard, we have had a time when doctors and nurses have respond to Ireland's call. If we could keep them at home, not have them emigrate and create the jobs and the positions for them in the here and now, that would be fantastic. I urge the Minister to do that. That would assist in making sure that we have the supply of staff and healthcare professionals for early intervention and tackling inequality.

Senator Boyhan referred to facilities for cluster care. My party has called that the primary care centre and has had great joy in rolling that out. It is a long-held cherished policy and one that has had support across both Houses. No doubt the Minister will also support that. That policy continues to be implemented so that we have primary care centres and we can roll them out as much as possible as the first point of contact with the healthcare service so that it is as close to the community as possible, keeps people out of hospital unnecessarily, can have a diversity and multifaceted response to people's health, and reduce waiting list and hospital waiting times.

We have two primary care centres - one planned and one nearly finished - in the constituency of Dublin South-Central. The first is the Rialto primary care centre on the South Circular Road. I am delighted that it was designated by the HSE as a Covid-19 triage centre. It received a special dispensation and works continued throughout the lockdown.It looks, from the outside, good to go or virtually good to go. I would welcome an update from the Minister, although not today as I do not mean to catch the Minister on the hop. At some point, I would welcome an update on when that will be opened.

The second issue is the primary healthcare centre planned for Drimnagh. In that regard, I have written to the Minister, Deputy Donnelly. The Minister of State, Deputy Feighan, will be on to the Minister on my behalf as well because I am nagging him. I am seeking an update on that, if at all possible, and whether and to what extent the scheduled commencement of that project has been delayed by the obvious health crisis. In December last, the then Minister of State, Catherine Byrne, and the Minister's predecessor, Deputy Harris, went out and confirmed the green light on that project that a new primary healthcare centre was going in on the site of the Mother McAuley Centre and the Alzheimer's centre, and it was to go on the same site in Drimnagh. At the time the HSE capital plan funding was in place to begin it, it was to be a new building on that Catherine McAuley site. There is fantastic work already ongoing in there for the local community. The project was supposed to go to final design this year with construction starting in 2021. I would appreciate the Minister's feedback on that project.

I wish the Minister the very best and thank him.

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