Alan Dillon (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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645. To ask the Minister for Health if he will provide details on the number of GP resources and funding allocated to out-of-hours urgent GP care in the recent winter service plan for 15,000 patients in areas (details supplied) currently outside of the Westdoc GP co-op. [53132/22]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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Westdoc co-operative provides out-of-hours GP services in Community Healthcare West, covering counties Galway, Mayo and Roscommon. Westdoc coverage however does not extend to certain rural areas within the region, where out-of-hours GP services have been provided instead by local doctors. It is acknowledged that the provision of out-of-hours services in such areas can be difficult and onerous on those GPs.

The HSE Winter Plan 2022/23 provides an additional €10 million in funding to support general practice including GP out-of-hours services for the upcoming winter period. However, following consultations with the HSE, funding for supports on a permanent basis are to be provided for the area concerned. Initially, this will cover an element of red-eye, weekend cover and weekend nights, at a cost of approximately €436,000.