Highland Radio understands that discussions have been taking place on the possibility of Caredoc taking over the NoWDoc service in Donegal.
Under the proposals, the NowDoc call centre and triage will no longer be based in Letterkenny and will instead operate out of Carlow.
There are concerns that local geographical knowledge will impact the delivery of care for patients.
Councillor Gerry McMonagle, Chair of the Regional Health Forum West says there are now serious concerns about the future of the service:
In response to our query, the HSE issued the following statement:
The NoWDOC GP Out of Hours Service provides an urgent GP service to patients in Co Donegal and South Leitrim.
The current operating model of GP OOH Service is managed and delivered by the HSE (NoWDOC) as part of a hybrid model with Caredoc providing GP’s for the delivery of care.
The HSE are continuing to work in partnership with NoWDOC & Caredoc to ensure that the public using the GP Out of Hours Service, and the staff working in the service, are provided with the necessary supports to deliver the best care to our service users, while ensuring that patient safety and quality of service are at the forefront of service delivery.
Exploratory discussions have commenced with relevant stakeholders surrounding the most effective arrangements needed to continue to deliver a safe quality driven service for our community, while also focusing on the need to examine the potential redesign of the operating model for the GP Out of Hours service in Donegal and South Leitrim going forward.
We remain fully committed to supporting our staff who are working in our NoWDOC service, and will ensure that we are engaging with staff directly and with their representative bodies throughout these discussions.
The HSE will continue to communicate and engage with all relevant stakeholders to ensure they are fully appraised of and consulted on any future developments.
