GPs back at work a fortnight after giving birth due to lack of cover 

In 2019, 284 doctors reported leaving the medical register for family or personal reasons, with maternity leave frequently being cited as the reason for withdrawal. Picture: Pexels

Female general practitioners are returning to work as soon as two weeks after giving birth, due to an inability to source maternity leave cover, a representative group has claimed.

When a GP takes an extended period of time off, such as maternity leave, they are responsible for putting a locum in place. However, due to a “manpower shortage”, many practices are unable to find cover, resulting in new mothers returning to work early.

Dr Sarah Fitzgibbon, founder of the Women in Medicine in Ireland Network, said it is particularly prevalent in rural areas.

“Some people are back after six weeks, other people have said they’re back after two weeks. It is not likely that you are going to have doctors sitting around waiting for a job [and] it’s much harder to incentivise people to come to a rural area for a short-term position," she added.

Dr Fitzgibbon said out-of-hours services, which GPs are contractually obliged to fulfil, adds to the difficulty.

"In rural practices that could mean you're on-call one night a week, and every third or fourth weekend. The weekend can be two or three 12-hour days... persuading them also to take on this commitment generally pushes people away."

Dr Laura Cullen, a GP in West Cork, returned to work when her daughter was 10 weeks old, because the practice in which she works was “struggling to cope” with fewer staff.

I felt the need to return early because they had no cover for me. I was exhausted but you just get on with it. You feel guilty for not being at home and you feel guilty for not being at work." 

In 2019, 284 doctors reported leaving the medical register for family or personal reasons, with maternity leave frequently being cited as the reason for withdrawal, according to a report by the Medical Council.

The Women in Medicine in Ireland Network believes a change to the HSE GP contract will improve maternity leave for medics.

Denis McCauley, chair of the Irish Medical Organisation's GP committee, said while progress had been made in the financial aspect of maternity leave in recent years, "there can still be difficulties in sourcing a locum to look after a list due to manpower shortages".

With the rollout of the IMO GP deal, he hopes that general practice becomes "more attractive" to graduates, he added.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Health said the number of GPs entering training has increased in recent years, adding that the 2019 GP agreement included improved maternity and paternity arrangements.