Una Martin, Cllr David Griffin (FF) and Aidín O’Hanlon in Newmarket-on-Fergus.
CONFIRMATION from the HSE that Newmarket-on-Fergus will be left without a GP has come as “a bolt from the blue” for the local community.
Over 1000 patients in Newmarket-on-Fergus are looking for a new GP after the HSE announced on Monday all 927 medical card holders in the parish would be transferred to the care of Saffron and Blue Medical Centre in Clarecastle from the beginning of 2026.
Following Dr Colum Hackett’s retirement in May 2019, all medical card holders in Newmarket-on-Fergus were transferred to Saffron and Blue which was operating out of Carrigoran from June 2020.
Saffron and Blue is already catering for patients from Clarecastle and Ballyea with Kildysart patients recently transferred and the Newmarket-on-Fergus arrival to put further pressure on their services.
According to the HSE up to 20 potential premises were viewed in Newmarket-on-Fergus but none were deemed to be suitable. These included vacant buildings such as what was formerly Commane’s clothes shop, Meehan’s Butchers and the closed Spar store at the Green. Newmarket-on-Fergus has the fifth highest population in Clare with the population projected to grow by a further 1000 over the next decade.
Officials from Obair have been in negotiations with the HSE for a year and a half about the potential of using the Tradaree building on the main street in the village. The community social enterprise has spent money to make the building suitable, with the belief that it would be used for a GP practice with other services.
General Manager of Obair, Orla Meehan told The Clare Echo, “We showed the premises to the doctor and the HSE, there was one negative with the property, part of the roof is quite low so there was an access issue but the HSE came back to us and asked us to get a quote for raising the roof of that section. Once that was done, the premises was perfectly suitable so I contacted a QS and an architectural engineer who had begun the process of putting together a quote for us but in the meantime we saw the correspondence from the HSE this week. We have spent money to see if we can fix the premises but it appears to be gone”.
Monday’s announcement did come as a surprise given positive indications had been issued by the HSE, Orla said. “It came as a bolt out of the blue because we had originally been told the premises wasn’t suitable but for them to come back and give us the nugget of hope that it would be, that is why we are frustrated and because we had engaged professionals to come in and fix it. We were looking at providing a wellness centre for the area with occupational therapists, speech and language therapists. For us it would benefit the village in so many more ways than just a doctor. We’re frustrated, we want the doctor in the village, we want to build on it, we want so much more than the doctor, we want to have a holistic centre for everything that is needed. For us, it is a real loss, it is more than just the doctor, it is a loss to all the other complementary services we could have brought in”.
Eimear Murphy had been heavily involved in the organising of a public meeting in December 2019 when the fight to retain GP services in the village was one of the main items on the agenda. An Obair employee, she said, “We have been in talks with them to find a premises, we have a premises that is perfectly placed on the main street that is lying vacant and we have kept the building vacant for the last year and a half with the hope that the HSE are going to take us up on the offer and move the doctor back to the village, it was our hope it would have happened, we have parking there, we’re perfectly placed, central and easy to get on the bus route”.
Accessing services in Clarecastle is an issue for elderly patients, Eimear flagged. “It is a big inconvenience, Carrigoran while it is not directly on the bus route, it was local and very easy to get to, there was a presence here, albeit it not in the village but it was a presence in Newmarket-on-Fergus. Our main hope was to bring a presence of a GP back to the village, it looks like that has fallen through despite our best efforts”. Meals on Wheels service users have contacted Obair with their concerns this week, she confirmed.
Newmarket-on-Fergus must fight for a GP, she insisted. “We’re not going to take this lying down, people need to get their voices heard, join forces. When Colum Hackett retired, we were told this was the solution and his patients were handed over with a view to having a presence in Newmarket-on-Fergus, that has fallen through like it has in other places”.
Owner of Varden’s Pharmacy, Martina O’Reilly said the village cannot afford to keep losing services. “So many businesses are closing or have closed in Newmarket-on-Fergus, it is more difficult for other businesses to keep going if all the businesses keep going from Newmarket-on-Fergus”.
Putting more patients in Clarecastle is not the answer, Martina stated. “They are already really busy in Clarecastle so I don’t know how they will cope with all the extra people, it is difficult on patients that don’t drive, it is bad enough to have to go Carrigoran but to have to go to Clarecastle, I’m not sure how they will manage and they seem to be at over capacity, it is not the doctor’s fault but they really need a GP in Newmarket-on-Fergus. I feel sorry for people that don’t have transport and find it hard to be travelling any distance, there is a big population here and an elderly population that have a lot of needs, they really need healthcare in their village”.
Medical card holders are resorting to using private doctors due to the length of time it is taking to get an appointment, Martina noted. “Some people are resorting to private doctors, even though they might have a medical card they will pay for a private doctor because they can’t get an appointment to see their own doctor, they are waiting too long and when they’re sick they need to see someone sooner”.
Community development officer in Newmarket-on-Fergus, Siobhán O’Driscoll stated, “What makes this worse is my own health situation. After having cancer, my health is already compromised, and I have had a persistent cough for six weeks. When I contacted Saffron and Blue, I was told the earliest appointment available was Thursday morning. That is simply not good enough. I was left with no choice but to go to a walk-in clinic and practically beg to be seen”.
O’Driscoll flagged that Obair showed the HSE “state of the art facilties” at the Tradaree building including lift access, door buzzers “and everything required for a fully functioning practice. The HSE representative was very clear that she wanted Dr. Gavin to take the premises, yet he showed zero interest. That in itself is shocking”.
Twenty three year old Úna Martin said not having a GP in Newmarket-on-Fergus “will have a huge impact”. She outlined, “I was waiting forty minutes the last time when I arrived up there, my appointment was for 2pm and I didn’t get seen until 2:40pm. When you have to ring the doctor there, you are ringing and ringing, you have to hang up because it says user busy, there is only one person at reception for all these people, it is ridiculous. When you are trying to ring, you are forty minutes on the phone, hanging up, dial again and it says user busy, it is a joke really”. She said she had been waiting two weeks for this appointment.
Health services are required in Newmarket-on-Fergus, Maria Ryan stressed. “I’m very disappointed that there isn’t a doctor in the village especially with the population growing, for elderly people that do not drive it is inconvenient, we are losing all our services, we need a doctor, it is very important and we shouldn’t have to travel to see a doctor. It is a massive blow, even when my kids were small we always had a doctor in the village, we need these services, they are very important. My father and mother are ill quite often, my father has diabetes so he has to go to the doctor quite regularly, my mother had blood clots so she is the same, we need these services”.
