New doctors 'feel supported', but GP infrastructure 'lags behind' housing expansion

Many new doctors are working in Ireland under a plan by the Irish College of GPs to boost numbers, which are lacking in many expandng areas.

Dr Shaegheh Mohammadi, left, is from Iran and now working mainly in Nenagh. Dr Aida Suhadi is from Malaysia and is now working in Tralee. Picture: David Coleman

A GP from Iran now working in Nenagh said she feels “very supported” by patients who check in on her as the war continues.

She is just one of many new doctors working in Ireland under a plan by the Irish College of GPs (ICGP) to boost numbers.

It also called on Saturday for new housing developments everywhere to be matched with new GPs.

Dr Shaegheh Mohammadi is known as Dr Shaika to her patients.

“Every single patient asked me, after this situation in my country began: ‘How are you? How is the situation with your family?' They are really kind and really nice,” she said.

“In rural areas, they like to communicate. So they ask: ‘Where are you from?’, and when I say ‘Iran’, they start to talk. You feel very supported, you feel understood by the community.” 

A GP in Iran for eight years, she worked in Sligo hospital after moving to Ireland before starting the two-year GP mentorship programme.

She was based in Nenagh with Dr Pat Harold, she said in an interview during the ICGP annual conference.

“I love my patients in Nenagh,” she said. “If I get my specialist registration, then I would love to get my GMS [medical card patient] list and have my own patients.” 

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Dr Aida Suhadi made her way from Malaysia to Tralee to work with Dr Gerry O’Shea under the same scheme.

She has found that patients’ expectations differ in both countries.

“I do find patients here are more educated in the sense they really want to know what is going on with their health, which I find really good,” she said.

“You have to be very prepared to explain, at length, the medicines and what you’re prescribing, the side-effects and every single thing.

“And some of them love to chat, 15 minutes would not be enough time for the chat.” 

That can bring its own challenges, however.

“I came from Malaysia and got dropped straight to Tralee, where the Kerry accent is really thick,” she said. “It was a bit of a challenge at first, but I got used to it."

ICGP medical director Diarmuid Quinlan. Picture: Eddie O'Hare

ICGP medical director Diarmuid Quinlan said many reports have identified GP shortages as a crisis point.

“There’s an expansion in housing, very welcome and necessary, but the GP infrastructure lags years behind that,” he said.

“We are looking to have one GP per 1,000 patients, so for every 250 new houses, that needs a GP.” 

Dr Quinlan is a GP in Glanmire, and said there has been massive housing expansion here.

“Our practice has over 90% occupancy of all the rooms all the time, and even if we could get planning, it is prohibitively expensive for us to expand.” 

He called for creative financial supports to help young GPs move outside the bigger cities.

There were 111 GPs on the international medical graduate rural GP programme by the end of last year, health minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill said last week.

Some 58 GPs have finished the course.