'Radical' plan needed to tackle GP shortage crisis

A survey carried out for the Social Democrats found severe pressures, including one person commuting over an hour for appointments. 

GP shortages are now so severe that people spend years waiting on a waiting list, while others pay up to €100 for an appointment, the Social Democrats will tell the Dail on Wednesday.

It comes as the Department of Health says a review of general practice, which started in 2023, is not yet finished. It could only say it will be complete “later this year”.

It comes a decade after free GP care was promised for all under 18s. 

A survey carried out for the party found severe pressures, including one person commuting over an hour for appointments. 

“(I am) still registered and using my GP in Tallaght even though I have lived in Baltinglass for six years, as no local GPs are accepting new patients,” they said.

Another said: "In my GP, if you come with more than one issue, you will be charged €100 rather than the standard €70." 

Responses also included a woman facing a month-long wait for an appointment for her mother, who has dementia. 

The party, in a motion on the crisis in GP care, will call for “an entirely new approach to general practitioner services” linked to Sláintecare.

It sets out a 20-point plan including calls to expand free GP care to under 12s this year and to everyone by 2030.

Offering GPs full-time work with the HSE, especially in remote or island communities, should be considered, it says.

It will call for a scheme to support GPs in deprived areas similar to the DEIS scheme for schools. This would see higher payments for the care of patients in these areas on public schemes.

It also calls for more primary care centres to be built.

Social Democrats health spokesman Pádraig Rice said: “Successive governments have presided over a litany of failures in the Department of Health, not least the delivery of free GP care.

“Free GP care for everyone may sound radical, but it is the European norm.

“17 EU Member States provide GP care for free. In four more, it costs under €2. Even in the most expensive member states, it costs no more than €30 to see your GP.” 

Dr Diarmuid Quinlan is medical director at the Irish College of GPs and a GP in Glanmire, Co Cork.

“When people say they can’t see a GP or they don’t have a GP, there is definitely a deficit,” he said.

In a sign of the pressures, he said a “relatively small number” of GPs and GP nurses see over 100,000 consultations every week.

When free GP care was initially extended to young children, he noted the number of appointments “went up to the European norm”.

However, further expansion requires more doctors, he said. 

“We need the GP workforce to deliver the care for people in a safe, timely, equitable fashion.” 

He expects to see changes from the growth in GP training places now. 

“10 years ago, we were training 150 GPs a year. Last year we had 350,” he said.

A Department of Health spokeswoman said of the strategic review of general practice: "Significant progress has been made, and the review is scheduled to be completed later this year."

This will include "recommending actions to support a more sustainable general practice".