A NUMBER of prominent doctors and medical professionals in Dingle are calling for the public to be consulted about plans to extend the SouthDoc out-of-hours emergency service to the Dingle peninsula.
According to the medical personnel, who include one of Dingle’s longest-established doctors, Dr Michael Fanning, the well-known poet and writer, the HSE South have given the doctors very little time to make up their minds.
A previous attempt by the HSE in 2006 to develop the so-called SouthDoc emergency service led to public marches against the idea.
Campaigners said the word “co-operative” was a misnomer, as doctors’ co-op out-of-hours services mean patients are seen by HSE locums rather than by GPs.
Language difficulties were also cited in the Gaeltacht area and those who signed petitions said they wanted any out-of-hours service to be staffed by their own Irish-speaking doctors.
Under the proposed new scheme, which may be introduced in a matter of weeks, the GPs would cover three times the area of the present district, and calls would be triaged from Killarney.
Locums would cover the area from Friday night to Monday morning, with the local doctor conducting surgery on Saturdays.
A statement signed by Dr Fiona Kavanagh, Dr Paul Moroney and Dr Fanning, as well as other medical professionals, reads: “It is important that patients are included so they can discuss in detail these proposals with the HSE and their family doctors. We feel it is our duty to inform the community of this imminent plan.” A number of Dingle doctors are supportive of the SouthDoc co-operative.