Cllr. Kennelly blasts SouthDoc Management and calls for immediate communication on Listowel Services for North Kerry

453

“SouthDoc management are still refusing to correspond with me as your public representative and Kerry County Council on my emergency motion tabled on Monday the 18th January at a KCC meeting. The motion read that KCC would immediately contact The HSE and The General Manager of SouthDoc to obtain clarity and detailed guidelines for the the future services to be provide by SouthDoc in Listowel for the north Kerry area.”

“I have become increasingly frustrated with SouthDoc and their unwillingness to communicate, however, below is the response I have received from The HSE last Tuesday.”
HSE stated: We were advised by SouthDoc that following consideration of their position in relation to delivering services in the context of Covid activity that the Listowel centre would reopen by appointment from January 18th 2021. This followed significant engagement between Cork Kerry Community Healthcare and SouthDoc.

We were informed on the afternoon of January 15th 2021 that SouthDoc had changed its position and had decided not to resume this level of service at this time in the context of the sharp increase in Covid numbers. We are concerned at SouthDoc’s lack of consultation with the HSE on this decision.

We wrote to the Board of SouthDoc seeking further information as to what led to this decision and we sought assurance from SouthDoc that their position would be reviewed in the context of the extraordinary pressure that all health services are under at this time. We also sought to meet with the Board of SouthDoc to discuss these issues as a matter of urgency. We received a response from the Board of SouthDoc on February 2nd 2021 and the contents of that response are currently under consideration.

Cllr. Kennelly says: “This has been a very personal issue for some time now and I will continue to demand communication and clarity from SouthDoc to deliver these services, that the people of north Kerry need and deserve”.