John Cummins (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I echo the Acting Chair’s comments wishing Senator Craughwell’s daughter the very best.

This is an important Commencement matter. I thank the Cathaoirleach for selecting it. I put it on the agenda for last week but time did not allow for it.

I thank the Minister of State for joining us in the House for this debate. I acknowledge the lack of rural GPs is not specifically in her remit but it affects many older persons who I am sure are often in contact with her good offices also. The lack of GPs in rural areas in particular is increasingly becoming an issue as older GPs retire and there simply are not enough new GPs coming through our universities and being recruited into the country, despite the fact that we have had quite a significant increase in both of those tranches in recent years.

The result means that places like Lismore in the Minister of State’s and my county of Waterford are without a permanent GP since the previous one retired in September of last year. While there has been various locums in place over the intervening period, the lack of continuity of care is leading to serious issues for residents in the area. Thankfully, there is a new GP practice in Tallow to add to the existing one there, which has eased the burden. As the Minister of State knows, it is only about a ten-minute drive from Lismore and it is on a good Local Link service. However, we need to have a fully functioning and permanent GP practice operating in Lismore.

In delving into this issue in recent times and from receiving calls from people, it has become apparent that the freezing of that list has become more and more of a problem, particularly for people who need that continuity of care. To give the Minister of State a flavour of the calls we have been receiving in the Dungarvan and Waterford city offices, one lady who spoke to my staff last week was upset and explained that she had ongoing female health issues that required continuity of care. She had actually stopped going to the GP to have her symptoms treated because she had to continually explain her problems from scratch to several new male GP locums over the past number of months. She applied to the HSE to have the ability to move to that new GP practice and was refused. What, if any, criteria are being used to determine whether a patient can move from a frozen list? In a recent reply I received from the HSE, the rationale cited on freezing the GMS list is to ensure there is a viable panel to attract a candidate when the post is re-advertised. I understand that is due to happen again this month. There have been two previous attempts but, unfortunately, we do not have a permanent GP in place. While there absolutely is merit in ensuring that there is a viable list in place, there has to be some common sense applied in the case where continuity of care is needed.

I have another constituent who actually lives closer to Tallow than Lismore.