THE PRESIDENT AND the national council of the National Association of General Practitioners Dr Maitiú Ó Tuathail have announced their resignation.
Ó Tuathail said in a statement that he had “grave concerns with regards to the governance of the organisation and cannot continue as president as a result”.
“I hope to be able to represent General Practice again at some point in the future,” he said in a statement.
The NAGP negotiate and lobby on behalf of general practitioners at an individual and group level, which recently included implementing abortion services and providing out-of-cycle CervicalCheck tests. The association has around 2,000 members.
Members of the NAGP were informed on Friday that the following doctors had resigned from the association: Dr Maitiu Ó Tuathail, Dr Dan Crowley, Dr Ronan Fawsitt, Dr Brid Walsh, Dr Tadhg O’Carroll, Dr Enda Ryan, Dr Stephen Murphy, Dr Lucinda Dockeray, Dr Mary Joyce Leader, Dr Adrian O Donovan, and Dr Mairtin O’Maoláin.
“The NAGP is a young organisation that constantly and exclusively advocates for GPs and general practice. It believes in accountability, transparency and clear communication with members,” the statement said.
At last year’s AGM concerns were raised about the governance of the NAGP.
It said that “serious issues of internal governance were brought to the attention of the National Council and the Directors of the NAGP” and that “significant efforts were made to resolve these issues through a process of renewal, transparency, and accountability”.
We regret and apologise to our members, that this was not achieved. As a result, the National Council, whose role is advisory, have tendered their resignation to the directors.
“We plan to continue to support you and will issue further correspondence soon,” it said.
The NAGP said that its directors would not be stepping aside out of a “responsibility to its members to facilitate ongoing industrial relations issues”.
Chris Goodey, the chief executive of the NAGP said the organisation would “continue to offer help and advice to GPs”.
We will continue to follow up payments from the DEASP, we will continue to offer IR advice, we will continue to deal with GP issues with the PCRS. We will continue to offer Health and Safety advice to GPs.
The statement did not address accusations of unresolved governance issues or the grave concerns raised by those who have resigned.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say