South Africans to cover GP shortages

Jimmy Woulfe, Mid-West Correspondent

With a huge exchange rate advantage between the South African rand and the euro, the visiting doctors find it more financially lucrative to make the near 13,000-mile round trip between Cape Town and Shannon Airport for shift work here than work full time in their own practices.

At present there are five South African doctors working as locums for Mid West doctors in the Shannondoc co-operative.

Shannondoc is made up of 102 GPs in counties Limerick, Clare and Tipperary who have come together to provide out-of-hours night and weekend cover to all their patients, public and private.

But many of the GPs find it impossible to work their scheduled night or weekend shifts, due to their day-time work. A large number of South African doctors have been identified by an agency and are now being brought in as locums.

The Shannondoc members pay up to E10,000 each per year to pay for the visiting locums who also get the call-out medical card/private patient fee when they are on duty.

The South Africans work with other on-call doctors from call-out centres in Newcastle West, Hospital, Kilrush, Ennistymon, Ennis, Shannon, Nenagh, Roscrea and Thurles.

Director of Shannondoc Larry Maher said the South African doctors come for a few months at a time.

“They come to earn money and are all very well qualified and are excellent doctors. There is a very strict vetting and interview system and each is registered with the Irish Medical Council. They interact very well with their Irish patients and they have a very wide range of medical experience,” he said.

Each of the Shannondoc centres has a specially equipped medical car with a driver so the visiting South Africans have no problems getting to patients late at night in isolated rural areas.

Talks are still ongoing between 70 Limerick city GPs and Shannondoc on expanding the co-op into the city. Junior health minister Tim O’Malley said if city doctors joined Shannondoc it would take pressure off the A&E department at the Mid Western Regional Hospital where many people go at night-time and weekends when they cannot contact a GP.

Some city doctors are reluctant to join Shannondoc as they already have an out-of-hours arrangement.

One city doctor, who asked not to be named said: “Why should I pay E10,000 a year to Shannondoc when I am already on a rota with other city doctors which involves being on call just one night in 13.”