NAAS, 5 September: by Trish Whelan. Naas town should have its own dedicated Medical Centre where people can get immediate advice and basic medical attention without the need to clog up the hospital casualty system, says Naas councillor Charlie Byrne.
Speaking after a recent first-hand experience where his grandchild had to be brought to Newbridge at a weekend to receive medical attention, Cllr Byrne said the family had been told that the only doctor on call in Naas or Newbridge was based in Newbridge that day, and the child would have to be taken there for attention.
“The alternative was to bring the child to the Casualty Department of Naas Hospital,” Cllr Byrne told the Kildare Nationalist. “It didn’t seem to be the kind of ailment that necessitated this in these days of overstretched Accident & Emergency rooms, but we were anxious that a doctor’s advice should be got.”
He said that it was ‘an absolute disgrace’ that a doctor was not available at the weekend in a town with a 20,000-plus population. “In third world countries you get better facilities,” he said.
And he asked what would happen to a family which didn’t have access to a car, or couldn’t afford a taxi?
“What I want, as a matter of urgency, are the kind of local medical centres which are common throughout Europe that give seven-day cover for GP-type services. They should have a nurse and a doctor and be able to give prescriptions and an emergency supply of prescription drugs.”
Politicians are all claiming that health service is their Number One concern at the moment, Cllr Byrne said, and they keep talking about the millions they’re putting into it, but that’s not showing in any improvement for ordinary people.
“I believe that spending just some of that money on these basic Medical Centres where people can walk in off the street would be money well spent. And it would take a lot of pressure off the A&Es in local hospitals, as well as off the shoulders of whatever doctor is on call in the area.”
He added that the existing Health Board clinic buildings - such as the Clinic building at the Harbour in Naas - which are closed at weekends could be easily used for the service at weekends
While there have been appeals to people not to clog up the emergency departments with basic ailments, and to check first with their family doctor, Cllr Byrne notes that local GPs generally now use an out-of-town ‘doctor on call’ service at weekends, whose doctors don’t even have access to medical histories of the people they come out to.
A motion last year by Cllr Byrne that people should have the right to carry their own medical records was unanimously passed by Naas UDC, and went on to be passed at national level by the Association of Municipal Authorities of Ireland.
Cllr Byrne says he now intends to campaign at both local and national level to have such centres put in place in every town in Ireland.
©2001trishwhelan/knn