A Longford councillor says people in the county are still very concerned about the future of the Out of Hours GP service.
Fine Gael's Peggy Nolan says the news that emerged on Christmas Eve that MIDOC, the Midlands GP service was ceasing operations on January 1st caused a lot of concern and fear for people in the county.
The HSE said at the time that they had been engaging with MIDOC for a number of months to address financial challenges it faced.
The Health Service Executive said they had arranged alternative cover between the New Year and the 15th of this month, while they confirm another provider.
Councillor Nolan says that while people are able to access the service locally she is concerned that this is only due to the goodwill of local doctors.
Speaking on the Let's Talk show today she says far more clarity and reassurances are needed on the future of the service.
"I believe that, only for our own GPs, this would not be able to happen, You have from 6pm this evening until 11pm a local GP will be out there with the other staff and then you've another doctor taking over to deliver the service until 8am the next morning, that's grand, but what we need is clarity. We need parity with the other counties. We have asked for a meeting with the minister to be hands on to sort this out so that it doesn't happen again".
