Doctors warn of GP manpower crisis

IRELAND is facing a major shortage of GPs, a doctors’ group warned yesterday.

And the introduction of four-year GP training programmes means the problem is set to get worse.

“We are now staring into the abyss of a major manpower crisis in general practice. It’s no longer down the line as we warned years ago. It’s right here with us now,” Irish College of General Practitioners’ spokesman Dr Niall Ó Cléirigh said.

“We campaigned to have GP training extended and most people would agree that it is necessary but, ironically, it will worsen the situation for at least two years,” he said.

One possible solution is to get GPs to postpone their retirement but Dr Ó Cléirigh believes this is a non-runner.

“GPs themselves will resist that because, far from any movement amongst GPs to extend their working life, there is a move to curtail it because of increasing stress and pressure on GPs already in well-established practices.”

The best way to address the manpower crisis is to make general practice more attractive to medical graduates.

Dr Ó Cléirigh said not enough was being done to solve the problem.

While the national co-operative movement freed GPs from being on-call around the clock, it did not deal with the core issues of long hours and the conflict between a GP’s work and family life, he said.

He said only 50% of GPs could avail of the out-of-hours service, even though its nationwide provision was listed as a top priority by the Department of Health.

“When you consider the first co-op opened over five years ago, the slow roll out of the service is quite unacceptable,” he said.

In this week’s Irish Medical News, Galway GP Dr Tony Lundon warned that the advent of four-year GP training programmes meant that in three years there will be no graduates.

He suggested one way out of the crisis would be for the Department of Health to compensate GPs who postpone their retirement. “It won’t cost a fortune and would be money well spent,” Dr Lundon said.

Chairman of the Irish Medical Organisation’s GP committee Dr Martin Daly said it was more important to concentrate on attracting and retaining graduates than persuading GPs to prolong their careers.

Health Minister Micheál Martin is consulting with the ICGP on a proposal to increase GP training places from the annual intake of 84 doctors to 150.

The ICGP has welcomed the move but has called for a fundamental review of the GP manpower crisis that takes account of all the contributing problems.