GP SURGERY FURORE
VILLAGERS MAKING 30-MILE ROUND TRIP TO SEE THEIR DOCTOR
RESIDENTS in a border village have called for their local GP surgery to reopen after more than a year of 30-mile round trips to see a doctor.
The practice in Roslea, Co Fermanagh, shut in April 2017, leaving locals without a GP for the first time in 170 years.
Its closure was another symptom of the demise of the small doctors’ practice model within the county due to a surge of retirements and an inability to recruit young doctors to replace them.
A group of local GPs stepped in to fill the void, but only for two months.
This skeleton service saw the community provided with telephone advice in the mornings. A doctor was only on hand in the afternoons to see patients and sign prescriptions.
Since then Roslea villagers have been left with no alternative but to make a round trip of 30 miles to visit a GP in Lisnaskea, and patience is at breaking point.
A patient transport service was set up in May 2017 by the Health and Social Care Board to ferry patients to their appointments.
As there was no demand for the bus, however, it was replaced with a voluntary car service, which has also had little or no uptake.
But the Maple Group Practice in Lisnaskea, Fermanagh’s second largest town, is bursting at the seams and now has over 15,000 patients on its books.
As well as Roslea patients, others have joined from nearby Newtownbutler, and another former surgery in Lisnaskea, which amalgamated with Maple due to GP retirements.
A new healthcare hub for Lisnaskea has been in the pipeline for a decade but has been delayed for various reasons, most recently the collapse of the Stormont Assembly.
Plans for the new surgery were first announced by the then Health Minister Michael McGimpsey in 2008.
The Department of Health said: “The department’s intention is to progress the development as quickly as possible once a suitable site has been made available to us.”
With the Maple Surgery now critically oversubscribed, patients have complained of long waiting times for appointments, jammed telephone lines and a lack of parking.
Hugh Pat Clerkin (82) is a Roslea native who now has to travel 18 miles each way to attend his doctor in Lisnaskea. he said: “I had open heart surgery back in 1992 followed by a heart attack so I still have to see my GP twice a week to have blood checks.
“My wife and I are both in our 80s so it is not easy getting down to Lisnaskea early in the morning, because we are not up to that anymore.
“We should be catered for in our own area.”
John McCluskey (74) is among those campaigning to get the Roslea surgery reopened and be- lieves the community deserves and needs a GP of its own.
“We need a surgery here fulltime and we won’t stop campaigning until it’s reinstated,” he said.
“Our elderly people are suffering and that’s not right in this day and age.
“People are entitled to a better service than they are currently receiving.
“Once you get to see the doctor they are fine, but getting to see them is nearly impossible.
“You could wait for an hour or two for the phone to be answered to get an appointment in the Maple clinic.
“I’m one of a number of patients who end up getting into the car and driving to Lisnaskea to try and get one in person.”
Pensioner Daphne D’Arcy’s late father Dr Frank was the local GP in Roslea for many years.
“No matter what your medical need, even if it’s only something small, you still have to drive all the way to Lisnaskea,” she said.
“It’s very inconvenient for people as they have to try to get an appointment in advance or they might not even bother trying.
“If someone has transport difficulties and feels unwell they might decide to hold off and see how they feel in a week or so.
“When dad was the GP in Roslea many years ago, he worked 24/7 and people could come to the surgery from 8.30 in the morning until 6 at night, but now there’s nothing.
“Luckily I have a car and can drive to Lisnaskea, but in another few years I might not be able to if my licence isn’t renewed.”
Phidelma Hand (51) was also born and raised in Roslea.
She said: “We’re now facing longer waits for appointments in Lisnaskea whereas before you could get one in our old surgery on the same day.
“My daughter Shauna had an appointment at Maple recently which was supposed to be at 3 o’clock but she wasn’t seen until 4.30.
“She had spent half-an-hour on the phone in the first place trying to get through to the surgery
to get that appointment.” Elsewhere in the rural county it is a similar story as closures and mergers of surgeries have become commonplace over the past two years, leading to a complete reshuffling of GP provision.
In December 2016 Maguiresbridge Surgery closed and patients were transferred four miles away to the Brookeborough surgery.
Then in April 2017 Brookeborough’s practice merged with Tempo to become Brookeborough and Tempo Primary Care Services.
And there appears to be no end in sight to Fermanagh’s GP healthcare crisis.
In March of this year it was announced that Derrylin, Florencecourt and Derrygonnelly surgeries would amalgamate and become known as Cuilcagh Medical Practice.
This move was prompted by the retirement of two doctors and sparked further concerns from patients about the retention of the three surgeries.
We need a surgery here full-time... our elderly are suffering and that’s not right in this day and age
If someone had transport difficulties and feels unwell they might decide to hold off going