GPs demand affordable healthcare as population suffers

GENERAL Practitioners say the latest report on the health service reinforces their call for the Government to act to provide affordable healthcare.

In particular, the report by the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) found the health of Irish people is suffering because they are postponing expensive visits to their family doctors.

And it was not only people who were just above the medical card entitlement who were visiting their GP less.

People on higher incomes were also seeing their GP less because of the cost involved.

Dr Niall Ó Cléirigh of the Irish College of General Practitioners (ICGP) said in recent years the medical card system had become top heavy with very ill people who made more frequent visits to their GP.

Most people did not quality for a medical card unless they were destitute, unemployed or had a serious illness.

The ICGP wants the number of medical cards to be increased by more than 200,000 because it people on the income margins were suffering.

“We don’t need any more reports now, we need Government action,” he said.

The ESRI report also said private hospital care was mostly delivered in public hospitals, giving rise to concerns about a “two-tier” system and about undesirable incentives for medical consultants and hospital managers.

Dr Ó Cléirigh said the same health issues had been highlighted in the United Nations’ annual report, published six weeks ago, and again at the ICGP’s annual general meeting in Galway last May.

Instead of looking at the health service as a black hole sucking up funding, the Government had to take a more realistic approach and set about improving it.

Dr Martin Daly of the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) said a recent survey by the Department of Health showed GP fees did not put off the vast majority of people in middle and upper income groups from visiting their local doctor.

But, he said, there were 250,000 people on the margins of income eligibility for who the cost of visiting GPs was a major deterrent.

“We know parents will put off going to the doctor in order to prioritise their own children,” he said.