The Labour Party’s Local Area Representative for the Clondalkin-Rathcoole electoral area is calling on the Government to build primary health care centres in Clondalkin-Rathcoole. Speaking after a family member’s recent health emergency, Chris O’Dwyer has praised the work of Occupational Therapists and Physiotherapists in St. James Hospital but is calling for local services to be established.
O’Dwyer said: “A number of weeks ago a family member suffered a stroke which was a very frightening experience to say the least but thankfully is on the mend thanks to efforts of the staff in St. James Hospital. “My family member has benefited from an early supervised discharge from hospital which means that for the foreseeable future Occupational Therapists and Physiotherapists will be making daily visits to support their rehabilitation. This new programme from St. James Hospital is a wonderful idea however, it really highlights the need for local primary health centres in the area. “Local hospitals reached critical mass levels during the pandemic and the provision of routine outpatient healthcare was severely impacted. Primary health centres would provide much needed support for hospitals and for the continuation of routine out patient healthcare in the community.
“At present waiting times for Speech and Language Therapy, Physiotherapists and Occupational Therapists in the Clondalkin area is 40 months. This is not acceptable and I appreciate that the Government is working to address this but a practical discussion about the use of Primary health care centres needs to be had in order to cut down these waiting times. “A primary health care centre needs to be established in Clondalkin with a further centre built to serve the people of Saggart, Newcastle and Rathcoole. Its time to take a leaf out of St. James Hospitals book and get creative with the provision of healthcare.
