Government urged to tackle rising shortage of family GPs

DOCTORS’ representatives will tomorrow ask the Department of Health to tackle the growing shortage of family doctors.

With an increasing number of medical students opting out of a career in general practice, the Irish College of General Practitioners (ICGP) will urge the Department to make GP working conditions more attractive and to invest more resources in their training.

“The existing programme will cater for the training of about 85 students this year,” ICGP chairman Dr Richard Brennan said. “We need almost double that number to maintain existing service levels. What we need is investment to expand the training programme.”.