GP access and school nursing
Deputy Murnane O'Connor said many constituents cannot access GPs and linked that to problems obtaining medical cards, while also raising a schools public health nurse staffing issue. The Minister thanked the Deputies for the final questions, promised to raise the family-law and driving-centre matters with the relevant Ministers, and said he was not familiar with the specific site issue in Drogheda.
This issue was raised by previous speakers. Many people who come to my clinics in Carlow cannot get access to GP services. This has become a major issue. As the Minister is aware, if you have no GP, you have no medical card. I am finding that this is becoming a regular occurrence. The Irish Medical Organisation has stated that attracting GPs to rural areas has become significantly more difficult in the past decade.
A HSE nurse range me yesterday. She told me that she applied for an internal post as a schools public health nurse, which involves administering vaccines, particularly that relating to measles. Because of the embargo within the HSE, she is not able to take up her post. This is a very serious matter that needs to be addressed.
Comment on this
I thank the three Deputies. I know that the issue raised by Deputy Durkan around family law and parental alienation is one that he has raised consistently. I will mention it to the Minister for Justice again.
Comment on this
She will not be surprised, but I am sure she will come back to the Deputy.
I thank Deputy Munster for raising the issue of the driving centre in Drogheda. I will ask the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, or the Minister of State, Deputy Chambers, to revert back to her on the issue of the specific site. We are making progress overall on the average waiting times for tests. It was 30 weeks in August of last year; it is now less than 20. That is still too long, but 41 additional testers have joined the RSA. A lot of extra resources are being provided. I am not familiar with the site-specific issues in Drogheda.
I thank Deputy Murnane O'Connor for again raising the issue of access to GP services. This matter came up a number of times in the course of proceedings earlier. I have outlined the work that the Minister is doing around the significant expansion in the number of training places in the various colleges and the increase in the resources being made available to the HSE. Where there is an issue with a specific location, I suggest that the Deputy liaise with the Minister and the HSE to see if a local solution can be arrived at.