This article is from page 2 of the 2009-11-03 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 2 JPG
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terday that the loss “is not an issue of concern” to the company.
The losses – which follow a surplus
of €5,800 in 2007 – have been ab-
sorbed by the company’s accumulat-
ed surplus, which stood at €106,110 at the start of 2008. At year end, this was reduced to €39,781.
Last April, the Health Service Ex- ecutive (HSE) ended 24-hour A&E services at Ennis and Nenagh Gen- eral Hospitals in spite of protests from GPs.
Since then, there has been a 22 per cent increase in calls to Shannon- doc’s Ennis service between 8pm and 8am while calls to the Nenagh service increased by 33 per cent.
Mr Maher said, “There have been operational difficulties, but we have worked around them and have had the flexibility to deal with any is- sues. We are coping well enough.
The service has been helped by the HSE providing an additional doctor in Ennis and Nenagh between 8pm and 2am since April.”
Last year, it cost €6.1 million to provide the Shannondoc service and the company’s greatest source of funding came from the HSE, which increased its contribution from €4.3 million to €4.6 million.
Mr Maher said, “The worry big con- cern for next year is that our funding will be cut and the impact that will have on services. We have become embedded in the health service in the region.”
Shannondoc’ provides primary medical cover for GPs during out-
of-surgery hours for the mid-west, excluding Limerick city.
Last year the service dealt with 95,217 calls. This represented an in- crease of 5.7 per cent on calls in 2007 and the area to show the highest in- crease was Kilrush at 25 per cent.
The director’s report recorded that, for the first time, the number of pa- tients dealt with by doctors has de- creased, if only very slightly at 340 eT (oNlhSe
The service employs 134 staff made up of 43 drivers, 51 medical staff and 40 in administration with employ- ment costs increasing by eight per cent from €3.8 million to €4.2 mil- lion