HSE emails show 'grave concerns' about closure of SouthDoc branches in Cork and Kerry

SouthDoc says it still plans to reopen the shuttered centres in Blackpool, Cork, and Listowel, Kerry, but that consolidating services was safer for both patients and staff due to the highly transmissible new strain of Covid-19. Picture: Eddie O'Hare

Emails expressing the HSE’s “grave concern” about the continued closure of SouthDoc centres in Cork and Kerry were sent at least three times this year but the private company still refused to reopen them, Freedom of Information documents reveal.

The continued closure of the services despite the HSE’s pleas to reopen them has been described as “scandalous”.