Local HSE urged to resolve out-of-hours GP shortfall

Two towns in Offaly have been identified by the HSE as being in need of a GP out of hours service. The HSE National Review of GP Out of Hours Services report published this week found that Tullamore and Edenderry have no 24 hour service available to patients. The HSE is now calling on the HSE Midlands to contact GPs to ensure full out of hours coverage in both these towns. The report found that MiDoc, which covers Westmeath, Longford, Laois and West Offaly, serves a population of 224,931 and has 101 doctors on its books. MiDoc has five treatment centres: Athlone; which also has a peripheral centre in Banagher, Mullingar, Longford, Portlaoise and Birr. The provision of a MiDoc service for Edenderry has been a contentious issue for the town for quite some time now. The town council recently met with Liam O'Callaghan HSE manager to discuss the extension of the service to the north Offaly town. They also agreed to write to local GPs to express the view that locums should make house calls to patients. Land was re-zoned in Edenderry back in July 2008, to allow for the HSE to develop the now ill-fated health centre and ambulance bay. This was also meant to include a MiDoc centre. However since then, the centre has not been built and the HSE has only provided funding for an ambulance service in the town working out of Ofalia House. Edenderry Councillor John Foley (FF) welcomed the recognition by the HSE that Edenderry is in vital need of a GP out of hours service. "After many months and years of representations made by myself and other local councillors, the HSE have finally publicly conceded that we are being neglected by the HSE in this area, in Edenderry and the general North Offaly area," said Cllr Foley. "Following numerous meetings with local councillors and HSE representatives, it now seems that there may well be light at the end of the tunnel... We will continue to pressurise the local HSE officers to bring this issue to a positive conclusion as soon as possible." Cllr Foley said that the recognition by the HSE is also a positive sign that this problem will be solved sooner rather than later Meanwhile, Deputy Olwyn Enright (FG) has called on the HSE to implement their recommendations and establish an Out of Hours GP Service in Edenderry and Tullamore at the earliest possible opportunity. She pointed out that MiDoc has been operating successfully in south Offaly for the last number of years and is used by a huge volume of people. "It is expected that the HSE will streamline, standardize and centralise aspects of the current GP out of hours structures, processes and costs and there are plans to agree the implementation of plans with GP co-operatives at a local level. With this in mind, the HSE must ensure the future provision of a high quality GP out of hours service for all patients in Offaly where we see everyone has access to the expertise they need for urgent problems," she said.