Immigrants need proper medical care

BY any yardstick, it would be unconscionable for doctors to withdraw their services from asylum seekers.

And yet, because of the workload, GPs in the General Medical Services scheme claim they have no choice but to refuse to take on additional patients from Ireland’s growing community of refugees and asylum seekers. According to an official report, patients from this group tend to visit GPS three to four times as often as others.

As often transpires, money is the crux of this problem. At issue is the Department of Health’s failure to provide sufficient funds to ensure immigrants are not denied access to medical care.