Latest cuts threaten Doc-on-Call service

Seamus Enright

Patient services provided by the North East Doctor on Call (NEDOC) are to come under strict review following the decision by Minister for Health James Reilly to slash a further 7.5% in funding for General Practice services in the region.
Funding for the NEDOC GP services had been cut by almost two-thirds in 2011, which already led to a 40% reduction in local GP rostering. Now the latest round of cuts has NEDOC management to “consider all options” in for the service’s future. NEDOC covers Monaghan, Cavan, Meath and Louth with treatment centres in Cavan, Navan, Castleblayney and Drogheda.
However, cuts to funding have forced a reduction in the number of daytime doctors appointed in Cavan and Monaghan from two to one, with the centres left totally unmanned if patient home visits are required. Meanwhile the abolition of GP triage has, according to management, also resulted in long waiting times and inappropriate attendances.
Bailieborough GP Dr Gavin Maguire, medical director at NEDOC whose primary role is to evaluate risk assessment within the service, not just for patients but also doctors, says: “We have reached the limits of safety in our view. “The HSE will have to consider how we are to manage the workload as the cuts to GP funding are now so significant patients will have to be referred to the Emergency Departments which are already overloaded.
“Our concerns over safety are genuine. If we haven’t got the capital to run this service and to put on enough medical staff then obviously the service becomes unsafe. The doctors are already working to capacity and they’re right at the edge of that at the moment.
“If we have to make any further reductions because we haven’t got the capital to pay the doctors involved then that is going to impact certainly on the levels of service”, he said. “We are getting to a point now where if further funding reductions are carried through that we may have to reduce rostering again further still, or look at other ways of managing the service which will ultimately impact on patient access to the service,” Dr Maguire added.
A HSE response to The Celt said “NEDOC Ltd. has not informed the HSE of any impending changes which would affect the services provided by NEDOC.”