Irish Examiner View: We must plan for the long term when it comes to healthcare

An eventual byproduct of free GP care would be an easing of the intolerable pressures on hospitals currently.

Retaining doctors in Ireland after they’ve finished their training is a problem which will need to be addressed if free GP care is introduced. File Picture: PA Photo/thinkstockphotos

The Economic and Social Research Institute’s latest report is one that truly gives pause for thought. 

Commissioned by the Department of Health, the report offers an estimate of the cost of providing free GP care for the whole population of Ireland in 2026, and comes up with a figure of between €381m and €881m as a final bill for the exchequer.

Without dwelling on the half-a-billion disparity between those figures, such a move would be a historic step, particularly for those minded to remember the strong resistance to plans such as Noel Browne’s Mother and Child Scheme in the early 1950s.

It would also be a progressive step that would benefit the country in the medium term — in time a byproduct of free GP care would be an easing of the intolerable pressures seen in hospitals currently. 

Although it would take some time for that to take effect, making such medium- and long-term plans to address problems in the health service has been sorely lacking in recent decades.

The ESRI report points out that nearly 60% of the population has neither a medical card nor a GP visit card, a figure which could also be interpreted as stating that almost half of the population can avail of those facilities when visiting their GP. On that basis, it might be seen as equitable to extend those facilities to the population as a whole.

There are necessary caveats which must be acknowledged before such a scheme could be implemented, and the sheer difficulty of retaining doctors in Ireland after they’ve finished their training is one serious problem which will need to be addressed.

Surely, however, if the will exists to see this proposal to fruition, then that and other challenges can be met and overcome for the betterment of all.