Mike Kennelly (Fine Gael)

I rise this morning regarding serious health concerns for the people of Listowel in north Kerry and the people of west Limerick. I am calling for the full restoration of the SouthDoc services at Listowel primary care centre. As stated, I am calling on the HSE and SouthDoc to immediately restore full out-of-hours GP services at the Listowel primary care centre to their previous operational levels. The recent reductions or alterations of these services have had a serious impact on the healthcare access for the people of north Kerry, particularly the elderly, families with young children and those without the transport to travel to other centres.

SouthDoc plays a vital role in providing urgent medical care during evenings, weekends and public holidays. Any scaling-back of these services has compromised and will compromise patient safety and places an additional strain on elderly, overburdened emergency departments. The people of Listowel and the surrounding areas deserve equitable and timely access to healthcare. I strongly urge the HSE and SouthDoc management to work with other local representatives and community stakeholders to fully reinstate the normal out-of-hours services at the Listowel primary care centre without delay. I am calling on the Minister for Health to come to this House for a debate on these serious health concerns for the people of my area.