Watch: Healthcare staff problems ‘confounded' in rural areas
Fianna Fáil's health spokesperson, Martin Daly has said the issue of recruiting and maintaining healthcare staff is 'confounded' in rural areas.
Speaking at the Irish Rural Link healthcare conference in Athlone yesterday (May 9), the TD and GP told Agriland that access to services is also a problem in rural healthcare.
He said: 'Access if the biggest issue for rural healthcare. What we mean by that, is having an adequate number of healthcare professionals in rural communities, whether it's GPs, nurses, or most importantly, carers.
'One of the big issues that we don't often think about when we think of health, is rural links. So transport, many older people can't drive and they need to be able to get to the local hospital.'
'It's all about delivering the most appropriate care, in the most appropriate style, and it should be close to peoples home,' the Roscommon – Galway TD explained.
Fianna Fáil health spokesperson, Martin Daly speaks about rural healthcare
Family Carers Ireland's Vicky Ward told the conference that often carers in rural Ireland put 'their own health on the back burner' in order to help the person they are caring for.
She said: 'In a lot of cases people can't access that care locally. We find, that every single issue that is out there for the general population is compounded for a family carer.
'Because, to be able to address their own ill health, they have to find somebody to care for their loved one, so that they can even go to a doctor's appointment,' she added.
Rural healthcare services
The keynote speaker at the conference Professor Robert Scully also highlighted that there is a need to increase the number of general practitioners (GPs) in rural areas, and outlined solutions to the problem.
The first area Prof. Scully highlighted for change, was to increase 'targeted recruitment' of GPs in rural areas.
In order to do this, he believes that students need to be exposed to appropriate role models, and for their to be a retention strategy to keep GPs in rural areas.
The professor also believes that doctors need to be trained 'differently' to work in rural areas versus an urban location and medical students need to be educated about rural issues, such as farming accidents.
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