The Minister for Health Simon Harris announced today (Wednesday 25th) that Boyle is one of 14 Primary Care Centres in Ireland which have been approved for construction.
Construction start up activities for all of the 14 sites is expected to commence from May 30th with a timeline for completion of 12-24 months. Service commencement for each PCC will be based on the construction completion date for each PCC. However all PCCs are expected to be operational by mid-2018.
Once completed, Boyle will be the fourth Primary Care Centre operational in the county, in addition to Castlerea, Monksland and Roscommon town.
The aim of Primary Care Centres is to provide patients with various health services locally. In many cases, patients can be treated in their local Primary Care Centre without the need of going to hospital. Primary care teams around Ireland include GP’s, Public Health Nursing, Allied Health Professionals and home helps. Many Primary Care Centre’s act as a hub for Health and Social Care Networks which consist of various health services including social workers, speech and language therapists, dental services, dietitians and other health care professionals. PCC’s have also facilitated the delivery of new services such as counselling, retinal screening and GP Ultrasound services.
Speaking at the announcement, Minister for Health Simon Harris T.D. said “On behalf of the Government we are delighted to welcome their significant investments in terms of expertise, funding, resources, employment opportunities and a 27 year partnership that extends from construction through 25 year facility maintenance. We look forward, with their support and assistance, in the delivery of state of the art 21st century health care facilities.”
Commenting on the announcement of PCC’s in Galway, Mayo and Roscommon, Tony Canavan, the HSE’s Chief Officer for CHO Area 2 said “The construction of these state of the art primary care centres, strategically located throughout our region, will provide us with the much needed infrastructure to deliver primary care services that will match the very best available across Europe to the people of the west of Ireland”.