Doctors in Galway are forming a co-operative to provide a more efficient service for patients throughout the city and county. It is expected to be functioning by the end of the year.
The new service will involve the construction of a purpose-built call centre close to the city centre and a single on-call number for patients to telephone.
A nurse will be on duty at all times to take the caller's details and assign a doctor from the rota to visit the patient or summon them to the surgery.
To increase efficiency, the coop will be employing drivers to ferry the GPs to their house calls, leaving them free to write up case notes on the way to the next call.
A steering committee has been set up by the Galway GP Society to liaise with the Western Health Board on the establishment of the co-op. The committee comprises Dr Fergil Colohan, Dr James Kent and Dr Collette McDonagh White.
The idea of the co-op is that instead of ringing around to see which GPs are on call, patients can telephone a single number and be allocated the doctor closest to them.
"The advantages from the patient's point of view is that it is easier to get a doctor and they also have the chance to talk to a nurse about the problem," Dr Colohan said.
A similar co-op scheme is running successfully in Carlow and is being extended to Kilkenny and Waterford.
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