Desperate efforts being made to save Kerry’s only primary care centre

Desperate efforts are being made to save Kerry’s only existing primary care centre after the Killarney centre’s management company, Prime Healthcare, became insolvent earlier this year.

No agreement has been reached between the owners and the GPs on financial terms going forward, and planners have told several doctors they will have to vacate the surgeries at the Killarney Gateway centre due to a ruling by An Bord Pleanála.

A spokesman for the GPs warned at the weekend that Killarney will lose out on X-ray and other essential primary care facilities if the fledgling primary care centre fails. Patients would otherwise have to travel to Tralee where, ironically, the go-ahead was recently given for a primary care centre.