Cowley criticises Government’s last-minute funding for rural GPs

PRESSURE Dr Jerry Cowley feels the announcement of €10 million in funding by the Government is as a result of his 'No Doctor, No Village' campaign.

Mulranny GP still very much intends running in Friday’s General Election

Áine Ryan

RURAL Mayo GP practices will not be saved by the outgoing Government’s ‘eleventh-hour intervention’, which promises to increase the funding in the coming months and widen the eligibility criteria .
That is the view of Independent election candidate, Dr Jerry Cowley, who told The Mayo News this morning that the €10 million extra funding promised for the Rural Practice Allowance ‘is not sufficient to solve the existing crisis by making unviable rural practices viable'. Nor, he said, does it go far enough towards meeting the needs of vulnerable people in the community.
Dr Jerry Cowley asked how, after years of highlighting the problems faced by rural practitioners, €10 million can be produced ‘within three days of polling day'.
He argued that his campaign, under the umbrella of No Village, No Doctor, had forced Government to address the issue.
Last December The Mayo News revealed that 77 County Mayo GPs had written to the Taoiseach and Minister for Health, Leo Varadkar, requesting him to ‘urgently address the ongoing crisis in rural general practice in Ireland’ and to implement key proposals immediately.  

'Precarious'
Speaking today, Dr Cowley asked: “What kind of service can the rural doctor give as a result of this concession? What about patients’ needs? What is now proposed is not sufficient to make unviable rural practices viable and so hold the family doctor in an area, or go far enough to give vulnerable people in the community the supports they need to stay out of hospital and have the best chance of survival and good health.”
“It's like a car with four bald tyres. What they have done is like replacing the tyre on the back left with a remould. The car is still in a precarious condition. Practice resources remain cut so that there is no support for GP house calls, and home supports are cut back to the core. Communities still lack essential services, and thousands of Mayo people wait too long for Galway specialists. The result is that vulnerable people in the community will deteriorate further and still end up on hospital trolleys,” he continued.
Dr Cowley said that Mayo people ‘will still wait for an unacceptable length of time in pain and discomfort for basic hospital services in urology and rheumatology in another county’.
He added: “Neither will it help my patient still waiting after two years and five months for a prostate biopsy or the man with the ticking time bomb aneurism in his head awaiting urgent surgical intervention which never happens.”

Welcome
Meanwhile, Minister of State Michael Ring and Deputy Michelle Mulherin separately released a Fine Gael party statement welcoming the ‘enhanced package for rural GPs’ announced by Minister for Health Leo Varadkar.
“It is so important that we support rural GP practices, so families living in towns and villages in rural Ireland can access medical care in their own communities. The Government is putting in place a new framework to support rural practices, which will raise the qualifying criteria for rural support and the financial allowance for rural GPs will also increase by about 25 percent to €20,000,” the statement said.
“At present, 167 GPs benefit from the existing Rural Practice Allowance. Under the new arrangements, it is expected that an extra 165 GPs will benefit from rural practice supports. It is expected these new arrangements will come into force from the start of May, and will benefit GPs in rural areas of Mayo,” it continued.