Revised GP contract should provide for return of Offaly Midoc services - Cowen

Fianna Fáil TD for Offaly, Barry Cowen, has said the revised GP contract, announced recently by the Government, must take into account the services which were previously lost.

Deputy Cowen was commenting following the announcement from the Government that there will be a €210m investment in General Practice.

Deputy Cowen explained, “Minister Harris and Taoiseach Varadkar made many promises recently in regards to General Practice. They have pledged to increase rural allowance, provide a fund for areas of deprivation, expand maternity and paternity supports and hire more practice nurses among other proposals. What they should have promised was to restore the Midoc services to Birr and Edenderry and other areas where GP services were downgraded."

“At the time of the closures, I called for HSE management to work with Midoc to ensure these clinics remained open. If additional funding could have been made available to help Midoc maintain their existing services then that should have been explored. Now we know new funding is available and I believe it needs to be looked at again," Barry added.

"The focus should be on growing primary care services instead of cutting back on them. All week I have been hearing Fine Gael colleagues lauding the revised contract, yet they should be insisting that services like Midoc are restored."

“There has been significant frustration and anger amongst family doctors at their treatment by the government, anger we believe to be genuine and warranted. They have waited a very long time for this revised contract, and let there be no doubt about it, it is a revised contract, not a new one."

"The downgrading of services was totally unacceptable and the situation now is that many people cannot get on to GP lists or else wait a week or more for an appointment. This new funding for General Practice must take into account the areas which went without before," concluded Deputy Cowen.