Funding threat to North East Doctor on Call

Published on: 23 August 2013


Senator Thomas Byrne has called for clarity after the publishing of an article in The Irish Medical Times this week in relation to the North East Doctor on Call.

“This article stated that as a result of a cut in funding for GP services, the North East Doctor on Call (NEDOC) which serves Meath, Louth, Cavan and Monaghan has been forced to review its service provision which will have an adverse impact on the services they provide”, explained Senator Byrne.

“Both the chairman and operations manager of the NEDOC has confirmed that these cuts and the subsequent forced review will have a severe effect on the services NEDOC can provide. This is simply unacceptable.

“At the moment, pressure is growing on out-of-hours GP services and the government should be offering them support instead of cutting their funding. This will jeopardise the health and safety of thousands of people across the North East. Due to these cuts, Doctors-On-Call will be forced to refer a number of their patients to already overloaded Emergency Departments to avoid having to deal with an insurmountable waiting list problem of their own.

“I am calling on Minister James Reilly to clarify the position on this and to state whether he is willing to take action to resolve the multiplicity of issues that NEDOC is facing,” concluded Senator Byrne.

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