Clare County Council is to write to the management of ShannonDoc, calling for an explanation behind issues faced by patients accessing its services.
It follows reports of long waits over the Christmas period.
Councillors are writing to ShannonDoc asking for a meeting to outline plans for out of hours GP services in the county into the future.
It follows reports of issues faced by patients trying to access the out of hours GP service over the Christmas period.
The matter was raised at this month’s meeting of the local authority, by Sinn Fein Councillor Donna McGettigan, who has criticised the service for being reactionary, rather than forward planning.
ShannonDoc issued a warning prior to the Christmas period that it was expecting patient numbers to double over the twelve days, due to GP practices being closed on public holidays and weekends.
But Shannon Councillor Donna McGettigan believes there was no excuse for the situations some patients had to endure.
The Reinstate Our Shannondoc Services Campaign group is echoing calls for a full review of the GP out of hours service.
Spokesperson and Former Kilrush Town Councillor Deirdre Culligan believes that opening only one of Clare’s centres at a time that huge numbers were expected to be accessing services simply isn’t good enough.
A Shannondoc spokesperson stated: “The Christmas period is always ShannonDoc’s busiest, with additional doctors and nurses rostered to deal with the increase in patient volumes. This year, the out-of-hours service rostered more doctors than previous years, with a 30% increase in medical manpower on duty.
“However, the patient surge across the Christmas period is thus far unprecedented, with patient volumes contacting the service amounting to almost three times more than last year’s levels. On one day alone, over 12,500 inbound calls were made to the ShannondDoc switch board. These are incredible numbers which amount to almost one month of calls in just one day.”
“Patients requiring specific Covid-19 advice and test referrals reduced considerably when compared to last year. This year patients are seeking direct consultations with a doctor for a range of illnesses such as stomach bugs, flu’s, colds and other respiratory illnesses. Our services are also busier across essential areas including mental health calls, nursing home calls, palliative care visits, dental calls, Garda calls and verification of deaths,” the spokesperson stated.
“As a result of the patient surge, during periods at peak times on Monday 26th and Tuesday 27th, the service was operating above its maximum capacity. In some instances, this resulted in patients having difficulty accessing the phone lines. Due to the unprecedented call volumes, it is inevitable there will be longer than usual wait times and there may be difficulties in accessing the phone lines during such peak times.”
The spokesperson added: “Unfortunately, we remain very concerned about the winter period ahead. GP surgeries in recent weeks have experienced an exponential surge, which has carried through to the out-of-hours service.
Listen back to the full interview here:
