Former HSE Director General to speak at NAGP New Year meetings

Ten meetings are set to take place at venues across the country and Mr O’Brien is scheduled to speak at three meetings in Dublin, Cork and Galway. 

NAGP CEO Mr Chris Goodey said Mr O’Brien would discuss the topic of transformation in primary care and that he would be open to questions from delegates. 

It is understood the Dublin meeting, scheduled to take place on Saturday 12 January at the Hermitage Clinic from 2-4pm, will be the first meeting Mr O’Brien will speak at since he stepped down as Director General earlier this year in the wake of the CervicalCheck controversy. 

Mr Frank Flannery, political consultant and former Fine Gael advisor, who has recently been contracted by the NAGP to act as a lobbyist, will also address meeting delegates. 

Each meeting will include an educational component, Mr Goodey said. Further meeting details are due to be released shortly. 

The first meeting is due to take place on Wednesday 9 January at the D Hotel, Drogheda at 7pm, followed by another gathering at the Hudson Bay Hotel, Athlone on 10 January at 7pm. 

Further meetings are scheduled for Wexford, Kilkenny, Kildare, Portlaloise, Galway, Limerick and Cork. 

Mr Goodey said the NAGP  would continue to campaign for the reversal of FEMPI and a new, well-resourced GP “wellness contract” in 2019. 

He also said he would like to see an end to the “illness cert debacle” as around 1,000 GPs nationally continue to refuse to use new forms and instead use photocopies of old Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection illness cert forms.