Southdoc won't be penalised by HSE over closure of two Cork and Kerry facilities

The HSE and Department of Agriculture also may have had questions over as many as 29 separate hand sanitiser products sourced during the initial Covid procurement phase

Cork Labour TD Sean Sherlock said: “More and more people are going to CUH on an A&E basis and bypassing SouthDoc because they are not confident they are being seen at SouthDoc." Photo: Eddie O'Hare

The HSE has said it is not in a position to penalise the SouthDoc out-of-hours GP service over the prolonged closure of two of its facilities as “there isn’t evidence that they weren’t providing a service”.

Two of SouthDoc's busiest clinics were kept closed until recent weeks despite HSE funding for the Cork-Kerry out-of-hours GP service being increased this year. SouthDoc did not reopen its clinics at Blackpool in Cork and Listowel in Kerry after their closure due to Covid until the start of this month, despite receiving a €200,000 increase in funding from the HSE for a 2021 budget of €7.5m.