Ó Tuathail says it 'was wrong' NAGP did not have access to GP contract

Dr Maitiu O Tuathail said that his receiving a copy of the contract from Taoiseach Leo Varadkar was “a continuation of the decision by the Government to consult with the NAGP and its GP members and keep them informed throughout”. Picture: Eamonn Farrell/RollingNews.ie

The former president of the National Association of General Practitioners Dr Maitiu O Tuathail has said that it “was wrong” that his organisation did not have access to a draft GP contract agreed by the Government in April 2019.

Dr Maitiú Ó Tuathail, a south Dublin GP who served as president of the NAGP between 2018 and its demise in 2019, said that his receiving a copy of the contract from Taoiseach Leo Varadkar was “a continuation of the decision by the Government to consult with the NAGP and its GP members and keep them informed throughout”.

In a joint statement with former NAGP chair Dr Andrew Jordan on Sunday night, Dr O Tuathail makes no reference to an article in Village magazine which alleged that Mr Varadkar had broken the law by releasing the draft document to the NAGP president.

Dr O Tuathail, who was making his first public pronouncements on the matter, said that the NAGP had been in extensive consultations with the Department of Health regarding a programme for chronic disease management throughout 2018.

He said that, arising from those talks, the NAGP had been “aware” of the main content of the proposed new contract.

He acknowledged that he had received a copy of the “finalised, agreed and announced programme for chronic disease management from the then Taoiseach in mid-April”.

“This was seen as a continuation of the decision by the Government to consult with the NAGP and its GP members and keep them informed throughout.” 

“We could not adopt a position on the programme for chronic disease management as a union, without full access to the details that it contained,” Dr O Tuathail said, adding that it “was wrong for one group of GPs to have access to the details of a chronic disease management programme, and for another group of GPs not to have equal access to that information, given that the NAGP and its members were involved in its formation”.

“The programme for chronic disease management was to be rolled out to all GPs, and therefore all GPs had a right to understand what the programme entailed, and what would be required of them,” he said.