NEWMARKET-ON-FERGUS’ five-year search to source a permanent GP has been dealt “a devastating blow” with close to 1000 patients to instead be treated in neighbouring Clarecastle.
On Monday, the HSE announced that all medical card holders in Newmarket-on-Fergus would be transferred to the Saffron and Blue Medical Centre in Clarecastle, effective from January 1st 2026.
According to the HSE, this move will impact 927 medical card holders in Newmarket-on-Fergus. Of this figure, fifty are residents in Carrigoran Nursing Home. Newmarket-on-Fergus is the county’s fifth highest population centre.
Efforts have been ongoing since 2022 to find a suitable premises for Saffron and Blue to have a permanent GP premises in Newmarket-on-Fergus.
Carrigoran House since June 2020 has been the location of a part-time GP service for Newmarket-on-Fergus with Saffron and Blue receiving a contract from the HSE.
For forty two years, Dr Colum Hackett was the GP with a premises in the village operating out of The Green in Newmarket-on-Fergus. He retired in May 2019, the area has not had a permanent GP in the subsequent six years.
In correspondence on Monday, Margaret Friel, business manager with the primary care unit of the HSE said of the upcoming transfer. “This relocation has become necessary due to the unavailablity of a suitable premises in the Newmarket-on-Fergus area We sincerely appreciate having been able to host the service at the Day Centre at Carrigoran over the past five and a half years. However, this option is no longer available”.
She stated, “Saffron and Blue Medical Clinic is less than ten minutes by car from Newmarket-on-Fergus and is served regularly by Bus Éireann. A full range of GP serivces including enhanced diagnostics is available on-site”.
HSE officials said as recently as April they were ‘actively looking’ for a site in Newmarket-on-Fergus.
Clare TD, Cathal Crowe (FF) labelled the move as “unacceptable”. He said, “It is hugely unacceptable that the medical care for almost a thousand medical card holders will be transferred to the Saffron & Blue Clinic in Clarecastle. This news, which comes just three weeks before the service transition”.
Deputy Crowe added, “This news will be a devastating blow to the people of Newmarket-on-Fergus, one of the biggest towns in County Clare. It is simply unfathomable that almost a thousand patients can be transferred to a clinic which it already bursting at the seams and not expect it to be much harder to obtain GP services. We have already seen this play out in Kildysart where the continuity of their GP service, which is also operated by Saffron & Blue, and the majority of whom have to travel to Clarecastle for their regular appointments now”.
According to the Meelick native, 20 residential, commercial and community properties were considered over the past three years by the HSE with a further call for expression of interests advertised by the HSE in June 2025.
He flagged, “I am very concerned about the risk of oversaturation of patients out of one clinic and the obvious effect that that could have on patient care going forward. Furthermore, it is a long and difficult commute for many patients, who may be elderly or unwell, who will now be expected to travel the distance to Clarecastle for care. The search for a permanent base for a Newmarket-on-Fergus GP practice must continue and it is simply not acceptable that the HSE should cease their search for a suitable premises. I will work very closely with Cllr David Griffin and the local community in vociferously pushing for this decision to be reversed. I have written to the HSE and to the Minister for Health asking for this process to be reopened for every stop to be pulled out to find a suitable premises as soon as possible”.
Last November, the Newmarket-on-Fergus community forum disbanded. The group had been formed in 2020 and had unsuccessfully attempted to bring a medical practice back to the village. In July 2023, representatives of the group attended a meeting with the then Minister for Health, Stephen Donnelly (FF).
