The HSE is being urged to continue to facilitate the registration of births, deaths, and marriages within the Primary Care centre in Buncrana.
The Leas Cathaoirleach of the Inishowen MD Cllr Fionán Bradley says the HSE attempted to close the Civil Registration Office in Buncrana in March, but following a meeting with himself and Minister Charlie Mc Conalogue, they agreed to maintain an outreach service on a trial basis.
That’s gone from once a week to once a fortnight, and now the HSE says due to staffing pressures, it will go to once a month overt the summer.
Cllr Bradley says there is a clear demand for the service which needs to be met…………..
Release in full –
BRADLEY CALLS ON HSE TO CONTINUE TO PROVIDE BASIC SERVICES IN INISHOWEN:
Leas Cathaoirleach of the Inishowen MD FF Cllr Fionán Bradley has called on the
HSE to continue to provide the Civil Registration Service (births, deaths, and
marriages) within the Primary Care centre in Buncrana. The HSE attempted to close
this office last March but following a meeting with myself and Minister Charlie Mc
Conalogue they relented on this position and agreed to maintain an outreach service
on a trial basis. Initially the office in Buncrana was to be open one day a week on a
Wednesday, this was then reduced to once a fortnight.
Following engagement I had with senior management within the HSE recently they
have informed me that “due to current and anticipated staffing pressures, including
the retirement of senior staff members and the need to prioritise statutory service
delivery … it will not be possible to continue this arrangement on a fortnightly basis.”
The HSE are now proposing to run the outreach service in Buncrana once a month
for the summer on June 10 th and July 15 th . They have said that “review of outreach
dates thereafter will be dependent upon progress with recruiting to upcoming vacant
posts.” At this stage I am calling on them to commit to the placement of a full-time
staff member in the Primary Care Centre in Buncrana as part of any recruitment
drive which they undertake.
As I have previously stated this service was available in
Buncrana for over 75 years. We now have a state-of-the-art primary care centre
which is a fantastic facility in the heart of Buncrana. To paraphrase the catchphrase,
it’s a case of “provide it and they will come” in relation to the civil registration service.
The HSE has confirmed that a total of 483 people from Inishowen obtained
appointments in the three CRS offices in Co. Donegal from 1 st January to 15 th May.
The reason only 9% of Inishowen people used the service in Inishowen is because
of a lack of available appointments. It is my firm belief that if the CRS was fully
restored to the Primary Care Centre in Buncrana that figure would be close to 95%.
I
would encourage as many people as possible to use the service in Buncrana and
those from Inishowen who obtain appointments in Letterkenny or Stranorlar should
make it abundantly clear that their preference would be to use the service in
Inishowen.
