North Kerry GP practice will close temporarily over Christmas

The Ballyduff GP Practice will close temporarily over the Christmas period, as there’s no locum GP available to provide cover.

The HSE has run an interim GP service in Ballyduff since September, pending the recruitment of a permanent GP. The HSE says despite extensive efforts, they’ve not been successful in getting a locum GP for a number of days over Christmas.

The Ballyduff GP Practice is closed this week and will be closed again from December 29^th to January 3^rd inclusive. The HSE says this is regrettable, but unavoidable and apologises for any inconvenience.

Emergency GP care will be provided at the Clanmaurice Medical Practice while the Ballyduff practice is closed; SouthDoc will also provide its usual out of hours cover for emergency care. A locum GP will take on the Ballyduff practice on January 4^th; a recruitment campaign will continue to permanently fill the role.

Fine Gael councillor Aoife Thornton says it’s a failure that there won’t be a GP in Ballyduff over Christmas:

Meanwhile, Sinn Féin TD for Kerry Pa Daly says the HSE must come up with a better system to ensure GP care can be provided for rural communities; he says moving from locum to locum is not a viable long-term solution.

The HSE says provisions for repeat prescriptions have been made and people can contact their usual pharmacy to arrange these.