Health cutbacks - GPs’ action will impact on services

With relations between the Government and the country’s doctors already strained, yesterday’s move by GPs to withdraw from primary care teams and other work not covered by the medical card contract has effectively set both sides on a head-on collision course.

The bitter war of words over cutbacks as witnessed in dealings between the medical profession and Health Minister James Reilly has now reached a climax of direct action by GPs. The worrying development from the public viewpoint is that this row will result in the immediate withdrawal of doctors from primary care teams, community intervention teams, and clinical care programmes involved in chronic disease treatment.

On the face of it, GPs appear to have a valid complaint that last week’s 7.5% cutback in their fees for treating medical card patients effectively takes over €150m out of services they provide for patients, thus bringing their slice of the health budget to below 2%. Yet, they can expect little by way of public sympathy. Compared to nurses, who work as hard as doctors but earn far less, GPs are well remunerated for their work in the health service. Whether they like it or not, the question on most people’s lips is ‘when did you last meet a poor GP?’.