Doctors take to the streets: A system not fit for purpose

Imagine your GP taking to the streets and protesting outside Dáil Éireann. Surely not, especially in a country where the local doctor, along with the parish priest and the garda, was always seen as a pillar of society.

How things have changed. Because of a few bad apples, both the priest and the garda are now viewed though jaundiced eyes. When doctors, one of the few pillars of the State that remain untarnished, exchange the stethoscope for the protest placard, something is seriously wrong.

Like many another groups in recent times, doctors from across the country gathered outside the Dáil to protest over cutbacks. According to the National Association of General Practitioners, doctors are coming under increasing pressure to deal with the medical card crisis. The exodus of young GPs from Ireland is having a big impact on the service, patients’ wellbeing and safety are being put at risk, they have been ignored by successive governments, and their practices are in trouble. If even a fraction of those complaints were true, it would be a deplorable situation. The frightening thing is that it’s all true. The reality is that the service which GPs provide in the community is far more important than that of any politician. When doctors feel they have to take to the streets to make their voices heard, it is a terrible indictment of Ireland’s health service and of the political regime behind a dysfunctional system not fit for purpose.