‘Put healthcare before houses in Ratoath’

A CALL for the suspension of house building in Ratoath until the town's Primary Care Centre is built has been made by Workers Party representative, Gerry Rooney.

The call follows the publication of research results by the Irish College of GPs (ICGPs) which revealed that Meath had the lowest number of GPs per head of population compared with any county in Ireland.

“The two obvious actions required by Government, Meath County Council and the HSE to solve this problem is to increase the number of GPs and establish primary care centres – particularly across the commuter towns of the Dunboyne, Dunshaughlin and Ratoath where there has been significant population increase."

Mr Rooney, a former General Secretary of the Permanent Defence Forces Other Ranks Representative Association, noted that a site was been available for years in Ratoath but has seen no building and none appears to be planned in the near future.

"Meath’s population now stands at more than 220,000 and this represents a 13 per cent increase over a six year period. The vast bulk of the population and growth is concentrated in Navan, suburban Drogheda, Dunboyne, Dunshaughlin and Ratoath.

“These areas represent Meath’s commuter belt and have a population of over 150,000. Public services such as GP’s and related services, childcare, hospitals and transport are struggling to keep up with the significant population growth in this area."

“The construction resources currently allocated to housing in Ratoath should instead be redirected from such housing to the building of a primary care centre. Following the completion of the primary care centre the construction resources can redirected back to house building. Moreover, consideration should be given to the planned suspension of house building in other parts of Meath to facilitate the allocation of construction resources to build badly needed service infrastructure such as childcare facilities and primary care centres”.

Primary Care Centres are delivered by a Primary Care Team comprising GPs, nurses, occupational, speech and language therapists and physiotherapists. It also complements other community related services including community mental health, audiology, dietetics, psychology, ophthalmology, podiatry, child welfare and protection service and oral health services.