Doctors avoiding general practice over on-call commitment

Many young doctors are opting out of general practice because of the requirement of being on-call for 24 hours a day.

That’s according to the Association of GP co-operatives, who are holding a meeting in Carlow to discuss new contracts which would not include a commitment to out-of-hour work.

If agreed to, over half of the country’s GP’s would not provide urgent care to patients around the clock and the work would be passed on to agencies.

Sean McGuire of the Association of GP co-operatives, said out-of-hours work is turning people away from the profession.