Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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280. To ask the Minister for Health if his attention has been drawn to the scaling back of services by a medical centre (details supplied) in County Clare; the action which will be taken to ensure that persons in the area will have access to care when it is needed and that access to care will not be compromised; his plans to replace these services that are being scaled back; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [34382/16]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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General Practitioners contracted under the General Medical Services Scheme must make suitable arrangements to enable contact to be made with them, or a locum/deputy, for emergencies outside normal practice hours. While there is no obligation on GPs to participate in GP out-of-hours cooperatives as a means of meeting the contractual requirement, such services have been developed and expanded over time and are now an essential part of our primary care services helping to ensure that, to the greatest extent possible, urgent care needs are met in the primary care setting. Where GPs decide not to become members of out-of-hours co-ops they must still discharge their contractual obligation in terms of out-of-hours provision in accordance with their GP contract.

In the Mid West region, the out-of-hours arrangements for participating GPs are discharged through Shannondoc, a not-for-profit GP cooperative, which is funded by the HSE. Shannondoc has recently indicated that due to a difficulty in attracting GPs, and in particular locum cover, it is no longer able to maintain its existing service across all its centres.

Following discussions with Shannondoc, the HSE, in order to ensure the sustainability of the service, accepted a proposal from the cooperative to changes in the provision of the service. The most significant changes relate to parts of East and West Clare, essentially affecting Ennistymon, Kilrush, and Killaloe with minor changes in terms of operating hours in two locations in North Tipperary,

The recent changes to the Shannondoc out-of-hours services will be subject to a three-monthly review and their impact will be closely monitored and evaluated by the HSE.