Aontú TD for Mayo, Paul Lawless, urged the Health Minister in the Dáil today to intervene in the case of a GP practice which is facing closure in Westport.
Speaking in the Dáil, Deputy Lawless said: “Minister, a GP practice in Westport is closing. The landlord is selling the building, the doctor has nowhere to go. The GP is currently working the notice period with the HSE. The HSE says there’s no room to accommodate the GP in the Primary Care Centre. What Westport needs to hear is whether this Government will make room for a doctor. The GP is effectively working the notice period. The Government should be taking notice”
Deputy Lawless continued: “The Government parties can find €2 million of tax-payers money to refurbish a meeting room in Mayo County Council to give Councillors an extravagant chamber in which to discuss public services, yet the HSE can not find a single room for a GP to provide one. In one location we’re getting a new meeting room for politicians and a few miles down the road over six hundred public patients and hundreds more private patients are getting a farewell letter. Is this the Government’s idea of putting people first?
“Minister, Westport has a GP who wants to stay and it has patients who need the GP practice. When other pressures arise, the Government can find accommodation at remarkable speed. Why, then, can it not find a place for this doctor to practice before hundreds of Westport patients lose access to her care?”, concluded Lawless.
In response to Deputy Lawless, the Minister said she was not aware of the issue, which Lawless said is “unacceptable, given the serious number of patients being displaced”.
