The Health Minister says there will be a strategic review of out-of-hours GP services, including SouthDoc, which serves Kerry and Cork.
Minister Stephen Donnelly was responding to Social Democrats leader Holly Cairns.
The Cork South West TD said SouthDoc is having issues with recruiting staff especially in rural areas and this has resulted in some of the services not running.
Social Democrats leader Holly Cairns told the Minister that GPs and staff in Cork and Kerry are already overstretched and they cannot be expected to provide out-of-hours cover.
He said SouthDoc is a private entity and therefore, it is up to the organisation itself, to hire as many GPs as it can.
Minister Donnelly said however, there are concerns and more can be done; he said this was raised at the recent conference of the Irish Medical Organisation.
Deputy Cairns wondered when this will happen.
Minister Donnelly said they’re trebling the number of GPs in training and he is working with the Irish College of General Practitioners on international recruitment in particular for rural areas.
He said the health service is expanding access to medical assessment units.
