A Priority Development for 2012 is to establish a GP Out of Hours service in Bray, Greystones and Tallaght. This was announced at Tuesdays meeting of the Regional Health Forum which I attended. I very much welcome this as many people have been very concerned at the service provided from a long way away as the drivers were not always familiar with the area and English was not the first language of many of the Doctors.

At a time of substantial cutbacks I am glad that this service, which is operating in many other towns, is to be improved. This will now have to be organised and negotiated with doctors in the area.

Overall the Regions’ HSE budget has been cut 4.6%. Given that, I was surprised that there are also to be other improvements including the appointment of at least 15 extra Hospital Consultants. Too often only cutbacks are mentioned.