SENIOR MANAGEMENT of ShannonDoc are to be asked to come before a sitting of Clare County Council to address concerns regarding its existing services in the county.
Following a request by Cllr Tony O’Brien (FF), the local authority will invite senior management of the out of hours GP service “to address the council regarding their planned service provision for Co Clare going forward, and to answer any queries or concerns which the elected members may have”.
In 2020, ShannonDoc recorded an income of €8m, €1.9m of which came from GMS income. This total income was up on the €7.3m of 2019, accounts show. This income was comprised of, HSE Out-of-Hours (€4,639,883), members’ contributions (€654,433), HSE Specimen Collection: (€258,319), HSE Methadone clinics and psychology services income (€176,297), private patients’ income (€154,384). HSE Other Income (€92,940) and HSE SATU (€49,275).
Calls handled by the company fell by 12% from 112,273 in 2019 to 98,178 in 2020. Income from the General Medical Card service (GMS) rose from €1,050,607 in 2019 to €1,900,655 in 2020.
“Huge profits were made,” Cllr O’Brien observed. “This is not an insignificant sum of taxpayers money that has been pumped into ShannonDoc services, I want senior management invited here so we can ask them some questions,” the Killaloe representative stated on Monday.
Clare’s Oireacthas members must be invited as the issues are of national importance, Cllr Ian Lynch (IND) believed. “We’re having an ongoing battle with them in West Clare, we brought them to the table but they only did it in-camera”. Cllr Donna McGettigan (SF) stressed, “There has to be a face to face meeting with them to get the answers to the questions”.
Mayor of the Ennis MD, Cllr Ann Norton (IND) said ShannonDoc was proving to be an issue for “many years”. She commented, “I don’t want them to be another Irish Water that only hold meetings behind closed doors. It is a huge important part of Irish society that we have an out of service doctor, we are not in a position to have a proper ED in Limerick so this is even more important”.
