GPS HAVE SAID that the workforce is not in place to ensure that the 500,000 additional people who are to get free GP care will be able to get appointments. 

Medical Director of the Irish College of General Practitioners (ICGP) Diarmuid Quinlan said today, at the professional body’s annual conference, that even if more people become medical card holders, they will struggle to get an appointment. 

“We are in a serious GP workforce crisis. Even though we agree with the medical card means testing being relaxed, and children aged six and seven being covered, the reality is that the doctors are not in place to cover these extra consultations,” he said. 

“We are going to remove the financial barrier for many people who need to see a GP, which is a good thing, but in many cases they will still struggle to get an appointment. 

“We currently have a head count of around 4,200 GPs in Ireland, but we need 6000. 

“I worked in the South Doc out of hours practice recently, and many of the patients I saw simply cannot get a GP. Practices are so stretched that they are not in a position to take on new patients,” he added. 

The ICGP Medical Director said that even though COVID-19 is no longer a public health emergency, it is still putting an extra workload on GPs. 

“We are still giving vaccines. We are still seeing people with acute Covid, we are still treating people with long Covid. 

“We are also treating an increasingly older population, who need a lot of healthcare, so a combination of training more doctors, and recruiting more doctors is needed. 

Quinlan said that doctors are already working too many hours, and struggling to take holidays. 

“Overtired doctors make mistakes. Who wants an overworked doctor to see their sick child? There are a certain number of patients that a GP should see in a day that we should not be going above, and we are routinely exceeding it,” he added. 

Taiwo Akhigbe, a GP in Celbridge, Co Kildare, said that he has been unable to take any substantial time off to spend with his family in the last two years. 

“It is very difficult. We have doctors in my practice who are set to retire, and it will be hard to replace them. I see around 35 to 40 patients a day as it is, so I can not imagine taking on more,” he said. 

Akhigbe said that due to hospital overcrowding, there is also an increasing number of emergency presentations at practices, and that he has treated people at the site of car crashes twice this year. 

“I do not think it is possible for doctors to be able to see all of the additional medical card holders we will have by the end of this year. I think that the system needs to be improved so more medical students are attracted to General Practice, so we can build up our workforce in a way that allows us to give all of these people quality care,”he said. 

The Nigerian native said that he manages the stress of seeing so many patients a day, as well as conducting home calls, because he is passionate about what he does. 

Taiwo Akhigbe, a GP in Celbridge.

“General practice is so important. There is an attitude in medical colleges, at times, that it is for less intelligent doctors – that it is about coughs and colds. That’s not the case. We work with people who have chronic conditions, we help people struggling with their mental health, we detect the early signs of serious health issues. It is very important,” he said.