NEWMARKET-ON-FERGUS’ continued fight to get a GP service back to the village was referenced at Monday’s meeting of Clare County Council.
Since June 2020, Carrigoran has been used as a medical practice following the retirement of Dr Colum Hackett in May 2019 following forty two years of service as a GP in the village. The premises used for his practice in the Fair Green of Newmarket-on-Fergus has not been used in a commercial capacity since.
Saffron and Blue Medical Centre have provided the GP service from Carrigoran after receiving a contract from the HSE.
In a proposal before Clare County Council, Cllr David Griffin (FF) called on the Department of Health and the HSE “to outline their plans to ensure long term access to GP care in rural towns and villages in Clare and around the country”.
He stated, “it is no secret that my own area of Newmarket-on-Fergus had to fight to get GP access”. He admitted he had nothing wrong with the principle of commercial healthcare premises taking on GP contracts “so long as the quality of care is there”. Situating GP services on the main streets of villages “is becoming more challenging,” the Stonehall man acknowledged.
A quarter of GPs in Ireland are over the age of sixty, Cllr Griffin flagged. “I know the HSE and GPs are working on a solution, we as local representatives need to keep the spotlight and the pressure on”.
Community development is reliant on social and community infrastructure, Cllr Griffin said. “The current trend which pools multiple GPs together in the one radius may be the answer, it is a clinical question that needs to be raised, we represent communities that are rural”. He added, “GPs are at the heart a private business but many newly qualified GPs don’t want the hassle of being self-employed or the red tape of being a sole trader”.
Seconding the proposal, Cllr Tom O’Callaghan (FF) commented, “We need to think outside the box in getting doctors, a number of qualified doctors can’t practice here. We need to look at trying to incorporate our new people and provide educational purposes in English language to somehow provide help in the system”.
Services need to be broadened around GPs, maintained Cllr Rita McInerney (FF). “Often it is the services around it that make their lives more difficult or better,” she said. Four nursing homes in the West Clare Municipal District are all serviced by different GPs, she flagged, “the GPs assigned to the patients are already under pressure”.
Cllr Joe Killeen (FF) proposed that representatives of the Department of Health and HSE be brought before a meeting of the County Council to answer questions, a call which was supported by Cllr Michael Shannon (FF).
