Carnlough GP clinic: Community raise concerns over service reduction

The Carnlough branch opened five years ago when it took on almost 1,400 new patients

A rural County Antrim community has raised concerns about a significant reduction to its GP service.

A public meeting was held in Carnlough after the village's only clinic cut its hours to two half days a week.

The Glens of Antrim Medical Practice says reduced funding meant it could no longer operate full time.

The Department of Health claim the practice "receives the same level of funding per patient as every GP practice across Northern Ireland."

However a number of members of the public at the meeting on Wednesday night said they feared lives would be lost.

'third world service'

Sharon Ramsey who lives in the village described it as a "third world service".

"Appointments are gone by 11 in the morning and it is a very dangerous path for us to be walking down.

"Lives will be lost and the well-being of the population in general is going to be severely impacted".

The medical practice will continue to operate full time at its main branch in Cushendall.

Mary Watson, from the Carnlough Community Association, said it would be difficult for many to travel ten miles there and back.

"Twenty five per cent of people in this village don't have access to their own transport.

"I worked out the bus timetables and it is a total nightmare, especially if you are coming from Glenarm.

"You don't need a day out when you're ill."

The Department of Health said house calls will still be offered by the practice for patients who cannot make it into the main or the branch surgery.

Doctor John McSparran, a partner at the surgery, said an increase in house calls would be "impractical and unreasonable"

However Doctor Brennan who works at the practice told the public meeting that more house calls takes up "extra time that could be used to see patients".

Doctor John McSparran is a partner at the surgery and also says it is "impractical and unreasonable."

"For us to come from Cushendall to Carnlough to see one person will take at least fifteen minutes to get there.

"It will take fifteen minutes with that particular patient and it will take fifteen minutes to get back."

"We're trying to operate essentially what is two practices from two different sites over a 20 mile radius at least.

"That in itself is going to create additional costs."

He said funding was agreed when the practice opened the branch in Carnlough in 2017.

"There is no way we would have entered and continued with the whole thing if we knew it was going to be temporary."

The Department of Health said the surgery "received additional, temporary funding support for three years to assist with the additional workload" of adding new patients to the practice.

"This funding arrangement was never to last indefinitely and was over and above the standard funding which all GP practices receive, based on their patient population.

"Making the temporary arrangement permanent would actually be unfair on other GP practices and would indeed have to be financed at the expense of other practices."

Sinn Féin, DUP and Alliance party representatives attended the public meeting.

They all said they wanted to see a full-time service reinstated.