Professional body for general practitioners makes urgent call for increased investment in primary care to avoid waiting lists for appointments

Family doctors welcome the focus on primary care in the report on the future of healthcare published today.

The Irish College of General Practitioners, the professional and training body for Irish family doctors, has welcomed the publication of the report of the Oireachtas Committee on the Future of Healthcare and its focus on the central role of primary care.

The College welcomes the political consensus that a properly-resourced primary care service can provide community-based healthcare for all, regardless of income, creating a single-tier healthcare system.

The College warned, however, that while free GP care for all is a laudable policy - and one that has broad political support - this policy cannot be delivered without a significant increase in the number of doctors, practice nurses, administrative staff and physical infrastructure in primary care to cope with increased demand.

The World Health Organisation has stated that Ireland is "unique among EU countries in not providing universal coverage of primary care", added Dr Karena Hanley, National Director of GP Training. "We know that patients' ability to pay affects their ability to access diagnostic tests, for detecting cancer, for example."

"Currently, it is the norm that patients can see their GPs on a same-day basis, and those with medical cards, as well as the under sixes and over 70s, can see their family doctor when they need to," said Dr Mark Murphy, Chair of Communications with the ICGP. "However, our concern is that free GP care for all could lead to waiting lists for GP appointments if increased capacity is not urgently delivered, and create a two-tier GP system, where only a private GP service could deliver a same-day appointment."

"The Government needs to understand that we are already experiencing difficulties in filling training places for family doctors, and that some medical card lists cannot be filled; getting a locum (replacement) doctor to enable holidays or sick leave is also a problem for many practices", added Dr Murphy. "We need to make general practice a more attractive option for younger doctors, and ensure that set-up costs and barriers to establishing new practices are removed."

The ICGP's submission to the Oireachtas Committee on the Future of Healthcare is available at www.icgp.ie/OCFH2016.

Media queries

Aileen O'Meara
Communications Consultant
Irish College of General Practitioners
Email: media@icgp.ie
Tel: 087 2239830 / 01 5175311

Dr Karena Hanley and Dr Mark Murphy are available for interview.