A lack of staff is causing longer waits for doctor appointments according to a Tipperary GP.
Nenagh based Pat Harrold, says that as well as a number of people out due to illness, the country wide lack of GPs and nurses is exacerbating the situation within our health service.
He says that surgeries are overwhelmed with calls at the minute due to Covid, RSV, and the flu, which are coming on top of all other medical issues.
Dr. Harrold told Tipp Today that increasing doctor numbers does not solve the situation with regards current appointments.
“Lack of staff, lack of Doctors, and that’s all sorts of people out sick, in hospital an everywhere there’s an awful lot of people out sick and proper order too you can’t come to work if you have a cold or a flu and if you have job where you can’t work from home… we don’t have enough doctors in the country, we know that, we don’t have enough GPs, we could do with a hell of a lot more, but that’s not going to be much good in the next few weeks.”
He is encouraging people to use alternative routes to access healthcare treatment, he feels Nenagh and other Local Injury Units should be utilised.
“The LIU’s… like there is one in Nenagh, they will look after most cuts and sprains and bites and scratches, and that kind of thing they won’t take head injuries and they won’t take you if you are pregnant. They are underutilised really and local injury units are always there and of you have a medical car they are free, and if you have private health insurance you can get video consultations with a doctor and a lot of people don’t even realise that is on their insurance.”
